UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA
POPULAR HISTORY
UNITED STATES.
A POPULAR HISTORY
OF
THE UNITED STATES,
FROM THE
FIRST DISCOVERY OF THE WESTERN HEMISPHERE
BY THE NORTHMEN, TO THE END OF
THE CIVIL WAR.
PRECEDED BY A SKETCH OF THE PRE-HISTORIC PERIOD AND THE
AGE OF THE MOUND BUILDERS.
WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT
SYDNEY HOWARD GAY.
VOLUME IV.
FULLY ILLUSTRATED.
[TH7IVERSIT7]
NEW YORK:
CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS,
x» 745 BROADWAY.
1881.
V \ ' f
COPYRIGHT, 1880,
BY CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS.
[Right of translation reserved.]
KIVEHSIDE, CAMI'.KIDGE:
ELECT UOT YPED AND PRINTED BY
H. O. HOUGHTON AND COMPANY.
INTRODUCTORY.
THE present volume is the completion of the work which the late
Mr. Bryant consented should have the sanction of his name. The
first two volumes passed the ordeal of his careful perusal ; in justice
to those who began the reading of the work at the beginning of its
publication, it is only proper to say that, save in the absence of his
verbal criticism for the last two volumes, there was 110 change of
actual authorship consequent upon his death.
Of histories of the United States there is no lack. A new one, to
be of any value, should be something more than the old story, even if
told in a new way. It ought to be the result of freshly gathered
knowledge, hitherto undiscovered or neglected ; and it should grow
from a consideration of facts and events, perhaps hitherto unobserved
because their significance had not been made manifest by later con
sequences. Whether in this work there are errors of judgment, the
reader will decide for himself ; whether it is a new history, is not a
question of opinion but a question of fact. Whatever may be known
now upon the subject, that was not known a half-century, or a quar
ter-century ago, will be found, it is believed, if it is worth knowing, in
these volumes ; for this is a matter simply of hard and conscientious
labor.
It is a little more than four years since the first volume was published ;
but it is hoped that the work itself will show no evidence of haste.
Up to a certain point, the task is mainly one of a given amount of
labor to a given limit of time, and collaboration overcomes time. In
this and the preceding volume there are chapters contributed by the
Rev. E. E. Hale, which only needed to be fitted into their appropriate
places ; among the later students of the battles of the Revolution, Mr.
Henry P. Johnston is one of the most diligent and accurate, and in the
preparation of some portions of the third volume his familiarity with
that subject has been of great service ; at other points Mr. H. E. Scud-
der has given opportune and essential help ; the narrative of the mili
tary movements in the war of the Rebellion was written, in part by
Vl INTRODUCTORY.
Mr. A. H. Guernsey, and in part by Mr. Rossiter Johnson. Mr.
Johnson has also been in close relations with the author as an assist
ant through the whole of this volume. With such efficient aid it has
been possible to bring forward each volume with a rapidity which,
without such assistance, would have implied haste and superficial
treatment.
If to some readers there should seem to be a want of propor
tion between the history of the war of the Rebellion and that of
other periods, a word is to be said. If the aim of this volume is
not altogether wide of its mark, it will be seen that, as the author
reads the history of the first seventy-five years of the Republic, the
slaveholders' rebellion was the natural, if not the inevitable, result
of a conflict which began with the adoption of the Federal Con
stitution. Why there was a conflict ; how aggression grew on the
one hand, and submission on the other ; how and why that ag
gression was at length resisted, step by step, as it became, step by
step, more dangerous and violent ; how the deadly struggle came
finally between the opposing forces of liberty and slavery ; — it is
this that makes the real history of the country from the time the
Union was formed till it was pronounced dissolved by the slave
holders, but to be re-formed with liberty instead of slavery as its
"corner-stone." Where only a volume could be given to that period
of three quarters of a century, it seemed imperative that the larger
part of it should be devoted to the causes, not always plain or un
derstood, and the smaller to the details of the final catastrophe.
The complete history of that Rebellion cannot yet be written. Rooms
full of archives, to arrange which, much less to read, no attempt
has yet been made ; private papers under seal ; knowledge locked up
and inaccessible for the present, — are the secret treasures which
must be opened before such a history can be intelligently under
taken. Even the military part of it, on which so many volumes
have already been written, is not yet so clear but that courts-
martial are still needed to decide the characters of Generals and
their campaigns. What else, then, could be done in a work of the
prescribed limits of this, but to attempt, so far as the armies are
concerned, only a general narrative of the essential military move
ments, to show how the end was gained ?
S. II. (i.
December 6, 1880.
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER I.
SULLIVAN'S EXPEDITION. — FALL OF CHAKLESTON. — ARNOLD'S
TREASON.
PAGE.
WASHINGTON'S OPPOSITION TO THE INVASION OF CANADA. — SULLIVAN'S EXPE
DITION IN CENTRAL NEW YORK. — THE BATTLE OF NEWTOWN. — INDIAN
SETTLEMENTS LAID WASTE. — BUODHEAD'S EXPEDITION. — BRANT'S REVENGE.
— SPAIN DECLARES WAR AGAINST ENGLAND. — OPERATIONS IN THE SOUTH
WEST. — CONDITION OF THE AMERICAN AXD BRITISH FORCES. — ATTACK ON
SAVANNAH. — SIEGE AND CAPTURE OF CHARLESTON. — A SEVERE WINTER. —
RAIDS IN NEW JERSEY. — SPRINGFIELD BURNED. — ARRIVAL OF ROCHAMBEAU.
— ARNOLD'S TREASON. — COHRESPONDENCE WITH ANDRE. — IMPORTANCE OF
WEST POINT. — THE CONFERENCE BETWEEN ARNOLD AND ANDRE. — ANDRE'S
CAPTURE AND ARNOLD'S ESCAPE. — ANALYSIS OF THE AFFAIR 1
CHAPTER II.
THE SOUTHERN CAMPAIGN.
THE EFFECTS OF ARNOLD'S TREASON. — BUFORD DEFEATED ON THE WAXHAW.
CORNWALLIS MISCALCULATES HIS TASK. ACTIONS AT ROCKY MOUNT AND
HANGING ROCK. — PARTISAN WARFARE. — GATES ASSUMES COMMAND IN THE
SOUTH. — THE MILITARY SITUATION. — BATTLE OF CAMDEN. — SKIRMISHES. —
BATTLE OF KING'S MOUNTAIN. — GREENE SUPERSEDES GATES. — His PLAN OF
CAMPAIGN. — BATTLE OF CONVPENS. — CONDITION OF GREENE'S ARMY. — His
RETREAT. — RECEIVES REINFORCEMENTS. — BATTLE OF GUILFORD COURT
HOUSE. — CORNWALLIS RETREATS TO WILMINGTON 30
CHAPTER III.
END OF MILITARY OPERATIONS.
ARNOLD'S EXPEDITION TO VIRGINIA. — MUTINY OF THE PENNSYLVANIA LINE. —
ITS CAUSE. — LAFAYETTE SENT SOUTHWARD. — CORNWALLIS'S PLANS. — DISAP
PROVED OF BY' CLINTON. — LAFAYETTE ADVANCES FROM MARYLAND. — JOINED
BY WAYNE AND STEUBEN. — His CAMPAIGN IN VIRGINIA. — CORNWALLIS AT
WlLLIAMSBURG. — FlGIIT AT JAMES Isi.AND. — GREENE*S CAMPAIGN IN SOUTH
CAROLINA. — BATTLE OF HOBKIRK'S HILL. — RAWDON ABANDONS CAMDEN. —
FORTS MOTTE AND GRANBY, ORANGEBURG AND AUGUSTA, TAKEN BY GREENE.
— SIEGE OF NINETY-SIX. — ABANDONED BY THE BRITISH. — HANGING OF COLO
NEL HAYNE. — BATTLE OF EUTAW SPRINGS. — GREENE'S GENERALSHIP. — MOVE-
vm CONTENTS.
MENT OP THE ALLIED ARMIES. OPERATIONS AGAINST NEW YORK ISLAND.
THEY MARCH SOUTHWARD. — ARNOLD'S EXPEDITION TO NEW LONDON. — AR
RIVAL OF ENGLISH AND FRENCH FLEETS PROM THE WEST INDIES. — ALLIED
ARMIES IN VIRGINIA. — CORNWALLIS BESIEGED AT YORKTOWN. — His SUR
RENDER 49
CHAPTER IV.
FIRST YEARS OF PEACE.
EFFECT OF THE SURRENDER. — ACKNOWLEDGMENT OP INDEPENDENCE. — A
TREATY OF PEACE NEGOTIATED AND SIGNED. — THE VERMONT QUESTION. —
ITS FINAL SETTLEMENT. — CONDITION AND TEMPER OF THE ARMY. — THE
NEWBURGH ADDRESSES. — CESSATION OF HOSTILITIES. — EVACUATION OF NEW
YORK. — WASHINGTON'S FAREWELL. — INDEPENDENCE ACKNOWLEDGED. — RE
LATIONS OF THE FEDERAL AND STATE GOVERNMENTS. — NECESSITY FOR UNION.
— COMMERCIAL POLICY. — THE AHMY. — THE NORTHWEST TERRITORY. — THE
ORDINANCE OF 1787. — THE QUESTION OF REVENUE. — SHAYS'S REBELLION . 75
CHAPTER V.
UNDER THE CONSTITUTION.
ADOPTION OF THE CONSTITUTION. — INAUGURATION OF WASHINGTON. — MANNERS
OF THE TIMES. — ADJUSTMENT OF PUHLIC DEBTS. — GROWTH OF POLITICAL
PARTIES. — THE NATIONAL BANK. — PROTECTIVE TARIFF. — CULTIVATION OF
COTTON. — CONSTITUTIONAL COMPROMISE WITH SLAVERY. — GENERAL EDUCA
TION. — WESTWARD EMIGRATION. — DEFEAT OF HAKMAR AND ST. CLAIR. —
WAYNE'S CAMPAIGN AGAINST THE INDIANS. — THE WHISKEY INSURRECTION.
— FRIES'S INSURRECTION. — HAMILTON AND JEFFERSON. — FRENCH INFLUENCE.
— GENET. — JAY'S TREATY. — POPULAR DISSATISFACTION WITH IT. . 100
CHAPTER VI.
ADMINISTRATIONS OF ADAMS AND JEFFERSON.
THIRD ELECTION OF PRESIDENT. — NORTHERN AND SOUTHERN JEALOUSY. — THE
CHIEF OF ONE PARTY THE SUCCESSOR TO THE CHIEF OF THE OTHER. — SEN
SITIVENESS OF PUBLIC MEN AND VIRULENCE OF THE PRESS. — ALIEN AND
SEDITION LAWS. — THE CARRYING TRADE OF THE WORLD. — FRANCE AND
AMERICA. — ENGLAND AND AMERICA. — THE CONDESCENSION OF FOREIGNERS.
— ENVOYS TO FRANCE. — THE X. Y. Z. CORRESPONDENCE. — NAPOLEON'S AC
CESSION TO POWER. — YELLOW FEVER IN AMERICA. — WASHINGTON'S DEATH.
— THREATENING OF WAR WITH FRANCE. — PREPARATIONS AGAINST STAIN. —
NAVIGATION OK THE MISSISSIPPI. — WILKINSON'S CORRUPT INTRIGUES. — SPAIN'S
DREAD OF THE UNITED STATES. — HAMILTON AND MIRANDA. — FOURTH ELEC
TION OF PRESIDENT. — THE PURCHASE OF LOUISIANA. — AARON BURR'S EXPE
DITION. — His TRIAL FOR TREASON 127
CHAPTER VII.
JEFFERSON AND MADISON.
THE BARBARY STATES. — WAR WITH TRIPOLI. — THE IMPORTANCE OF LOUISI
ANA. — INCREASE OF POPULATION AND WEALTH. — JEFFERSON'S CREED AND
CONTENTS. ix
HIS POLICY. — SETTLEMENT OP THE WEST. — LEWIS AND CLARKE'S EXPEDI
TION. — FOREIGN COMMERCE AND ITS DIFFICULTIES. — THE BERLIN AND MILAN
DECREES, AND THE ORDERS IN COUNCIL. — CONDITION OF THE NAVY. — THE
AFFAIR OF THE "CHESAPEAKE." — THE EMBARGO. — MADISON'S ACCESSION. —
THE "PRESIDENT" AND THE "LITTLE BELT." — BATTLE OF TIPPECANOE. —
CLAY AND CALHOUN. — PREPARATIONS FOR WAR, AND ITS DECLARATION . . 154
CHAPTER VIII.
WAR WITH ENGLAND.
MESSAGE AND REPORT ON WAR WITH ENGLAND. — DIVISION OF PARTIES ox THE
WAR. — RIOT IN BALTIMORE. — HULL'S SURRENDER OF THE NORTHWEST. —
FIRST CAMPAIGN ON THE NIAGARA. NAVAL BATTLES OF THE FIRST YEAR. —
WAR ON THE LAKES. — DESTRUCTION OF YORK. — PERRY'S VICTORY. — HARRI
SON'S INVASION OF CANADA. — TERRITORY OF MICHIGAN RECOVERED. — WIL
KINSON'S DISASTERS ON THE ST. LAWRENCE. — SECOND CAMPAIGN ON THE NIAG-
AHA. — INDIAN WAR IN THE SOUTH, JACKSON'S CAMPAIGN. — NAVAL BATTLES
OF THE SECOND YEAR 185
CHAPTER IX.
WAR WITH ENGLAND.
NEGOTIATIONS FOR PEACE. — JACKSON'S MOVEMENTS AT THE SOUTH. — THIRD
CAMPAIGN ON THE NIAGARA. — BATTLE OF LUNDY'S LANE. — BATTLE OF PLATTS-
HURG. — CAPTURE OF WASHINGTON. — EXPEDITION AGAINST BALTIMORE. — NA
VAL BATTLES OF THE THIRD YEAR. — BITTERNESS OF PARTY FEELING. — THE
REMEDY OF DISUNION. — THE HENRY CONSPIRACY. — THE HARTFORD CONVEN
TION. — DEFENCE OF NEW ORLEANS. — THE TREATY OF GHENT 209
CHAPTER X.
MONROE'S ADMINISTRATION.
THE NEWS OF PEACE. — ITS EFFECT UPON THE HARTFORD MOVEMENT. — CHAR
ACTER OF THE TREATY OF GHENT. — RESULTS OF THE WAR. — THE ALGERINE
WAR. — CONDITION OF THE UNITED STATES — FINANCIAL QUESTIONS. — EFFECT
OF THE TARIFF UPON NEW ENGLAND CITIES. — CHARACTER OF MADISON. —
ELECTION OF MONROE. — THE FIRST SEMINOLE WAR. — REASONS FOR ANNEX
ING FLORIDA. — THE AFFAIR AT AMELIA ISLAND. — JACKSON'S CAMPAIGN. —
His EXECUTION OF PRISONERS. — His DISPUTE WITH MONROE. — CESSION OF
FLORIDA 238
CHAPTER XI.
MONROE'S ADMINISTRATION.
THE MISSOURI QUESTION. — EXTENSION OF SLAVERY. — DOMESTIC SLAVE-TRADE.
— INCREASE OF THE SLAVE POWER. — THE COMPROMISE LINE OF 36° 30'. — A
NORTHERN MEASURE. — CONGRESSIONAL STRATEGY. — No ADMISSION OF FREE
STATES WITHOUT SLAVE STATES. — RANDOLPH'S "DOUGH-FACES." — COMPRO
MISES IN CONGRESS AND CABINET. — LIMITED MEANING OF FOREVER. — CLOS
ING YEARS OF MONROE'S SECOND TERM. — THE TARIFF. — INTERNAL IMPROVE
MENTS. — STEAM ON THE LAKES. — FIRST OCEAN STEAMER. — THE "MONROE
DOCTRINE." — ELECTION OF JOHN QUINCY ADAMS TO THE PRESIDENCY . , . 260
x CONTENTS.
CHAPTER XII.
ADAMS AND JACKSON.
TIIK ERA OF GOOD FEELING. — ADMINISTRATION OF JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. — THE
PROPOSED CONGRESS OF SOUTH AMERICAN STATICS. — OITOSITION OF TIIK SLAVE-
HOLDEUS. — POLITICAL EDUCATION, NORTH AM> SOUTH. — A SOLID SOUTH. —
INDIAN TROUBLES AND STATE SOVEREIGNTY IN GEORGIA. — Tin: TARIFF MADE
A SECTIONAL QUESTION. — THE BLACK HAWK WAR. — JACKSON'S CHARACTER,
AND HIS POPULARITY. — HE ESTABLISHES THE SYSTEM OF REMOVALS FROM OF
FICE. — THE EATON SCANDAL. — THE CONTEST OVER THE UNITED STATES BANK.
— REELECTION* OF JACKSON. — ANTI-MASONRY. — NULLIFICATION. — PREPARA
TIONS FOR WAR IN SOUTH CAROLINA. — THE COMPROMISE BILL. — THE PUBLIC
LANDS. — MATERIAL PROGRESS. — INCREASING USE OF STEAM-POWER. — THE
FIRST RAILROADS. — EARLY MANUFACTURING 282
CHAPTER XIII.
SLAVERY AND ANTI-SLAVERY.
A NEW ERA. — THE MODERN ANTI-SLAVERY MOVEMENT. — GARRISON AND " THE
LIBERATOR." — His EARNESTNESS AND DETERMINATION. — DEBATE ON SLAVERY
IN VIRGINIA. — THE SOUTHAMPTON INSURRECTION. — PANIC AT THE SOUTH. —
THE SOUTHERN IDEA OF GOVERNMENT. — SLAVERY MET ON A NEW ISSUE. — THE
ABOLITIONISTS. — THE ATTEMPTS TO SUPPRESS THEM. — PENAL LEGISLATION
PROPOSED. — THE RESORT TO VIOLENCE. — THE REIGN OF MOBS. — INFLUENCE
OF SLAVERY ON MORALS, MANNERS, LITERATURE, AND COMMERCE 316
CHAPTER XIV.
PROGRESS OF SOUTHERN RULE.
THE SECOND SEMINOLE WAR. — REMOVAL OF THE CHEROKEES. — COST OF A SLAVE-
HUNT. — TROUBLE ON THE CANADIAN FRONTIER. — BURNING OF " TIIK CARO
LINE." — TRIAL OF McLEOD. — THE LOG-CABIN CAMPAIGN OF 1840. — DEATH OF
PRESIDENT HARRISON. — SUCCESSION OF VICE-PRESIDENT TYLER — HE BREAKS
WITH THE WHIGS. — His SOUTHERN POLICY. — THE ASHBURTON TREATY.—
EASTERN AND NORTHWESTERN BOUNDARIES. — THE DORR WAR OF RHODE
ISLAND. — THE ANNEXATION OF TEXAS. — THE MANNER AND PURPOSE OF IT. —
ELECTION OF JAMES K. POLK. — WAR WITH MEXICO. — ITS RESULTS. — ANNEX
ATION OF CALIFORNIA 350
CHAPTER XV.
THE COMPROMISES OF 1830.
ELECTION OF TAYLOR TO TIIK PRESIDENCY. — CALIFORNIA. — DISCOVERY OF GOLD.
— TiiE COMPROMISES OF 1850. — THE NEW FUGITIVE SLAVE LAW. — ADMINIS
TRATION OF FlLLMORE. ELECTION OF PlERCE. DOUGLAS'S KANSAS-NEBRASKA
BILL. — REPEAL OF THE MISSOURI COMPROMISE. — SETTLEMENT OF KANSAS. —
MASSACHUSETTS EMIGRANT AID SOCIETY. — REEDER APPOINTED GOVERNOR. —
INVASION OF KANSAS BY " BORDER RUFFIANS" 387
CONTENTS. xi
CHAPTER XVI.
THE KANSAS STRUGGLE — BUCHANAN.
THK FRAUDULENT ELECTIONS IN KANSAS. — THE TERRITORIAL LEGISLATURES. —
THE KANSAS CODE. — BORDER RUFFIANS AIDED FROM SOUTH CAROLINA. —
SACK or LAWRENCE. — JOHN BROWN OF OSSAWATOMIE. — DISPERSION OF THE
TOPEKA LEGISLATURE. — ELECTION OF BUCHANAN. — LECOMPTON CONSTITU
TION AND THE ENGLISH COMPROMISE. — THE MORMONS. — WALKER'S EXPEDI
TION. — ATLANTIC TELEGRAPH CABLE. — JOHN BROWN'S INVASION OF VIRGINIA.
— His CAPTURE AND EXECUTION. — ELECTION OF LINCOLN 410
CHAPTER XVII.
OPENING OF THE WAR.
FULFILMENT OF THE SLAVEHOLDERS' PURPOSE. — SOUTH CAROLINA LEADS. —
SEWARD'S MISTAKEN PHILOSOPHY. — BUCHANAN'S POLICY. — ACTION OF CON
GRESS. — PROPOSED PEACE COMPROMISES. — ORGANIZATION OF THE CONFED
ERACY. — SEIZURE OF FORTS AND ARSENALS. — TWIGGS'S SURRENDER. — OC
CUPATION OF FORT Si MTER. — ITS FALL. — THE FIRST CALL FOR TROOPS. —
THE MOP, IN BALTIMORE. — FIGHT AT BIG BETHEL. — OPERATIONS IN WESTERN
VIRGINIA. — BATTLE OF BULL RUN. — REBEL ATROCITIES. — BALL'S BLUFF. —
REBELLION IN MISSOURI. — DEATH OF GENERAL LYON. — FREMONT IN MIS
SOURI. — FIRST EMANCIPATION PROCLAMATION. — SECESSION OF TENNESSEE. —
NAVAL EXPEDITIONS ALONG THE COAST. — THE TRENT AFFAIR 435
CHAPTER XVIII.
THE PENINSULAR CAMPAIGN.
EXPEDITION TO NORTH CAROLINA. — THE "MONITOR" AND " MERRIMAC." —
BOMBARDMENT OF FORT PULASKI. — GENERAL HUNTER IN SOUTH CAROLINA.
— MOVEMENT TO THE PENINSULA. — THE SIEGE OF YORKTOWN. — BATTLE OF
WlLLIAMSBURG. — TlIE CHICKAHOMINY. JACKSON ON THE SlIENANDOAH. —
BATTLE OF HANOVER COURT-HOUSE. — BATTLE OF SEVEN PINES. — BATTLE
OF FAIR OAKS. — LEE IN COMMAND OF THE CONFEDERATES. — BRIDGE-BUILD
ING. — STUART'S RAID. — THE SEVEN DAYS. — BATTLE OF BEAVER DAM CREEK.
— BATTLE OF COLD HARBOR. — THE CHANGE OF BASE. — SAVAGE'S STATION.
— LEE'S STRATEGY. — BATTLE OF FRAZIER'S FARM. — BATTLE OF MALVERN
HILL. — THE FLIGHT TO HARRISON'S LANDING. — WITHDRAWAL FROM THE
PENINSULA 462
CHAPTER XIX.
NORTHERN VIRGINIA AND MARYLAND.
POPE IN COMMAND IN NORTHERN VIRGINIA. — HALLECK MADE COMMANDER-IN-
CHIEF. — JACKSON SENT TO GORDONSVILLE. — BATTLE OF CEDAR MOUNTAIN. —
LEE MOVES FROM RICHMOND TO THE RAPPAHANNOCK. — BATTLE OF GROVE-
TON. — PANIC AT WASHINGTON. — McCLELLAN IN COMMAND. — THE INVASION
OF MARYLAND. — BATTLE OF ANTIETAM. — PRELIMINARY PROCLAMATION OF
EMANCIPATION. — MCCLELLAN'S DISLOYALTY TO THE GOVERNMENT. — HE is
SUPERSEDED BY BuRNSIDE. — BATTLE OF FREDERICKSBURG. TlIE CAMPAIGN-
IN THE MUD. — BURNSIDE SUPERSEDED BY HOOKER ... . 492
xii CONTENTS.
CHAPTER XX.
OPERATIONS IN THE WEST, 1862.
POSITION IN THE MISSISSIPPI VALLEY. — CAPTURE OF FORT HENRY. — CAPTURE
OF FORT DONELSON. — NASHVILLE ABANDONED. — NEW MADRID AND ISLAND
NUMBER TEN — POPE'S CANAL. — FORT PILLOW AND MEMPHIS. — HALLECK
AND GRANT. — BATTLE OF SHILOH, OR PITTSBURG LANDING. — CAPTURE OF
CORINTH. — BRAGG'S MOVEMENT INTO KENTUCKY. — BATTLE OF PERRYVILLE.
— BATTLES OF IUKA AND CORINTH. — BATTLE OF STONE RIVER. — VICKSBURG.
— GRANT'S PLANS. — HOLLY SPRINGS. — BEGINNING OF THE SIEGE OF VICKS-
BURG 515
CHAPTER XXI.
THIRD YEAR OF THE WAR.
HOOKER IN COMMAND OF THE ARMY OF THE POTOMAC. — THE MARCH TO CIIAN-
CELLORSVILLE. TlIE BATTLE OF ClIANCELLORSVILLE. THE INVASION OF
PENNSYLVANIA. — HOOKER SUPERSEDED BY- MEADE. — BATTLE OF GETTYSBURG.
— LEE RETREATS TO THE POTOMAC. — THE SIEGE AND SURRENDER OF VICKS-
BURG. — MEADE'S CAMPAIGN IN VIRGINIA. — OCCUPATION OF CHATTANOOGA. —
BATTLE OF CHICKAMAUGA. — GRANT IN COMMAND OF THE DIVISION OF MIS
SISSIPPI. — THE SIEGE OF KNOXVILLE. — THE BATTLE OF CHATTANOOGA. —
SHERMAN'S MERIDIAN EXPEDITION. — BANKS'S RED RIVER EXPEDITION. . . 543
CHAPTER XXII.
GRANT IN VIRGINIA. — SHERMAN'S MARCH TO THE SEA.
GRANT MADE LIEUTENANT-GENERAL. — THE FORCES IN VIRGINIA — GRANT'S PLAN
OF CAMPAIGN. — BATTLE OF THE WILDERNESS. — BATTLES AT SPOTTSYLVANIA.
— FLANKING MOVEMENTS. — MINOR OPERATIONS. — THE SECOND BATTLE OF
COLD HARBOR. — THE MARCH TO THE JAMES RIVER. — SHERMAN AT THE SOUTH.
— PLANS OF SHERMAN AND JOHNSTON FOR THE ATLANTA CAMPAIGN. — ENGAGE
MENT AT RESACA. — BATTLE AT KENESAW MOUNTAIN. — JOHNSTON SUPERSEDED
BY HOOD. — THE BATTLES NEAR ATLANTA. — CAPTURE OF ATLANTA. — HOOD
DEFEATED AT NASHVILLE. — SlIERMAN's MARCH TO THE SEA. TlIE CAPTURE
OF SAVANNAH 569
CHAPTER XXIII.
THE CLOSING SCENES OF THE WAR.
TREATMENT OF PRISONERS. — NAVAL AFFAIRS. — RICHMOND AND PETERSBURG. —
OPENING OF THE SIEGE OF PETERSBURG. — EARLY'S RAID IN MARYLAND AND
PENNSYLVANIA. — BURNSIDE'S MINE AT PETERSBURG. — PROGRESS OF THE
SIEGE. — SHERIDAN IN THE VALLEY OF THE SHENANDOAH. — THE ARMY IN
WINTER QUARTERS. — FORT STEEDMAN. — BATTLE OF FIVE FORKS. — EVACUA
TION OF RICHMOND. — THE FALL OF PETERSBURG. — SHERMAN'S MARCH THROUGH
THE CAROLINAS. — ASSASSINATION OF THE PRESIDENT. — CAPTURE OF JEF
FERSON DAVIS . . 587
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.
FULL-PAGE ENGRAVINGS.
STEEL PLATES.
Title. Designer. Engraver. To face
PORTRAIT OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN Charles Burt . Title.
From a photograph from life by Brady.
PKRRY AT THE BATTLE OF LAKE ERIE J. E. Kelly . . M. W. Baldwin. . 180
WEST POINT Jas. D. Smillie . J. Smillie .... 425
From a sketch made for this work.
PORTRAIT OF ULYSSES S. GRANT H. B. Hall, Jr. . .575
From a photograph from life by Brady in 1863.
WOOD ENGRAVINGS.
To face
Title. Designer. Engraver. Page.
SHERIDAN'S RIDE J. E. Kelly . . J. W. Evans . . 1
CAPTURE OF MAJOR ANDRE" . . . . A. R. Waud . . H. Karst ....
THE SURRENDER OF CORNWALLIS . . A. B. Frost . . J. P. Davis . . .
PARTING OF WASHINGTON AND HIS
OFFICERS W. L. Sheppard J. Karst .... 80
PORT OF BUFFALO IN 1815 W. H. McCracken . 211
From a contemporary print in the Port Folio.
EMIGRANTS TO THE WEST . . . . W. M. Cary . . P. Meeder . . .311
BUTLER AND THE CONTRABANDS . . J. E. Taylor . . J. Karst .... 450
SINKING OF THE ALABAMA . . . . J. O. Davidson . H. E. Schultz . . 514
FAHRAGUT IN THE MAIN RIGGING E. Heinemann . . 527
From the painting by William Page.
GLORY! HALLELUJAH I — Ax INCIDENT
IN SHERMAN'S MARCH J. E. Kelly . . J. W. Evans . . . 584
LEE'S SURRENDER J. E. Kelly . . J. W. Evans . . . 589
THE UNION ARMY DISBANDED . . . J. E. Taylor . . F. Karst .... 598
xiv LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.
ILLUSTRATIONS IN TEXT.
Title. Designer. Engraver. Page.
MOHAWK VILLAGE IN CENTRAL NEW
YORK Warren . . . J. P. Davis ... 1
PORTRAIT OF GENERAL SULLIVAN Knapp 2
From the painting by Trumbull.
DESTRUCTION OF INDIAN VILLAGES . Warn! .... Pierson .... 5
PORTRAIT OK GENERAL LINCOLN Janseu .... D
From ike original, in the possession of Isaac Winslow, Esq.,
Hint/ham, Mas*.
FALL OF SERGEANT JASPER .... Kappes . . . J. Clement ... 11
JAMES AND ARDESOIF Reinhnrt . . . bleeder .... 14
PORTRAIT OF BENEDICT ARNOLD . . Beech .... Cozzens . . . . 17
From the portrait by Du Simitier.
ROBINSON'S HOUSE Bonwill . . . Smart
From a sketch for this work.
FAC-SIMILE OF ANDREWS PASS . . . Runge .... Leggo
From "Andre's Trial."
ARNOLD'S ESCAPE Wand. . . . Hellawell . ... 27
SIGNATURE OF NATHAN HALE Leggo 29
From a manuscript in the New Haven Historical Society's
Collections.
SIGNATURE OF SUMTER Leggo 32
From an original letter in the possession of Samuel Wilde,
Esq., New York.
MARION IN CAMP Sheppard . . . Geraty .... 33
SIGNATURE OF MARION Leggo ,34
From an original letter in the possession of Samuel Wilde,
Esq., New York.
DE KALIJ WOUNDED Sholton . . . E. Clement ... 37
A WOMAN RECONNOITRING .... Reinhart . . . E. Clement ... 39
PORTRAIT OF DANIEL MORGAN. . . Beech. . . . Knapp 41
From the painting by Trumbull.
ENCOUNTER BETWEEN TARLETON AND
COLONEL WASHINGTON Gary .... Annin 44
PORTRAIT OF GENERAL NATIIANAEL
GRKENE Beeeh .... Treat 47
From the painting by Trumbull.
NEW YORK AT THE TIME OF THE
REVOLUTION; SEEN FROM THE REAR
OF COLONEL RUTGER'S HOUSE, EAST
RIVER J. Karst .... 49
After a contemporary print.
MUTINY OF THE PENNSYLVANIA
LINE Taylor .... Winham .... 51
FRENCH AND AMERICAN UNIFORMS . Waud . . J. Karst .... 55
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. xv
Designer. Engraver. Page.
PORTRAIT OF LORD CORNWALLIS Treat o7
From a painting by Hoppner.
PREPARING TO BURN FORT MOTTE . Kappes. . . . J. Clement ... 59
WATER-CARRIERS OF NINETY-SIX . . Sheppard . . . Hellawell .... 61
THE WEBB MANSION (ROCHAMBEAU'S
HEADQUARTERS), WETHERSFIELD,
CONN Filler .... Holsey .... 65
From a photograph for this icork.
NEW LOXDOX " Range .... Leggo 68
Fac-simile from an original sketch in 1776.
" LORD, xow LETTEST THOU THY
SERVANT DFPAKT ix PEACK " . . Fredericks . . Pierson .... 70
" ELIZABETH TOWN STACK WAGON.
Two DAYS TO PHILADELPHIA". . Range. . . . Leg-go 74
From a newspaper advertisement, 1781.
PORTRAIT OF COUNT DE VERGENXES Nichols .... 76
From a painting by Collet, 1786.
SCENE 'IN THE GRFEX MOUNTAIXS . Gibson . . . J. Hellawell ... 79
PORTRAIT OF Gov. GEORGE CLIXTON Nichols .... 81
From the painting bi/ Ames.
HEADQUARTERS AT NEWBURGII . . . Fitler . . . . H. Karst .... 84
From a sketch for this work.
SIGXATURE OF ARMSTRONG Leggo 87
From an original letter.
FRAUNCES'S TAVKRX Hosier . . . . J. Minton ... 90
From a picture in Scribner's Magazine.
A NEW ENGLAND FARMHOUSE, 1790 . Warren . . . Winham .... 92
A PLANTER'S RESIDENCE, 1790. . . Sheppard. . . Rae 93
A LUMBERING SCENE Taylor . . . Bogert .... 94
THE FRANKLIN PENNY, FIRST UNITED
STATES COIN Cary .... Leggo 96
From a specimen in the possession of the author.
DOLLAR OF 1794 Cary .... Leggo 97
From Dickeson's Numismatic Manual.
A SCENE IN SHAYS'S REBELLION . . Taylor .... Winham .... 98
THE PRESIDENT'S CHAIR Wand .... Clement .... 100
From a sketch for this work.
PORTRAIT OF ALEXANDER HAMILTON Heinemann . . . 102
From an engraving by Rogers of the Talleyrand miniature.
CELEBRATING THE ADOPTION OF THE
CONSTITUTION Fredericks . . J. Karst .... 104
SIGNATURE OF RICHARD HENRY LEE Leggo 106
From a fac-simile of the signatures to the Declaration.
THE COTTON PLANT . Warren . . . T. Hellawell . . 108
FORT WASHINGTON, CINCINNATI . . Murphy . . . Foy Ill
From a painting in the Council Chamber at Cincinnati,
copied from a contemporary sketch.
THE INDIANS' ROCK, NEAR PORTS
MOUTH, ON THE OHIO Warren . . . J. Hellawell . . . 113
From a photograph for this ivork.
xvi LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.
Title. Dcsigiifr. Engraver. Pays.
PORTRAIT OF GENERAL ARTHUR ST.
CLAIR Beech .... Pierson . . . .115
From a print.
PORTRAIT OF GENERAL ANTHONY
WAYNE Treat 117
From the painting by Herring.
A MOUNTAIN STILL Kappes . . . Ileinemann . . .110
VIEW OF PITTSBURG IN 1790 . . . Cary .... Heinemann . . . 120
From the print in the Memoirs of the Historical Society of
Pennsylvania, vol. vi.
PORTRAIT OF JOHN JAY Beech .... Treat 124
From Gilbert Stuart's Painting.
FRANKLIN'S GRAVE IN PHILADELPHIA Hosier. . . . Maurice . . . .126
From a picture in Scribner's Magazine.
PORTRAIT OK CHIEF JUSTICE MAR
SHALL D. Nichols . . . 183
From a drawing by Neiusam from Inman's painting.
PORTRAIT OF ELBRIDGE GERRY E. Clement . . . 135
From the painting by Vanderlyii.
THE BEGINNING OF THE CAPITOL. . Range. . H. Karst . . . . 136
From a contemporary print by Birch.
MOUNT VKRNON IN 1797 Warren . . . Knapp .... 137
From a print in Weld^s " Travels in North America."
PORTRAIT OF AARON BURR Treat 142
From the picture by Vanclerlyn.
FLAT-BOAT GOING DOWN THE MISSIS
SIPPI Taylor .... Meeder . . . . 14S
VIEW ONT BLENNERHASSETT'S ISLAND Gibson . . . Andrew . . . .150
From a photograph for this work.
PARADE OF BURR'S FORCE .... Taylor .... La n Bridge . . . 152
TRIPOLI Warren . . . Annin 155
From a print in the Tour du Monde.
PORTRAIT OF STEPHEN DECATUR Bross 157
From the painting by Sttlh/.
DECATUR AND THE TURK Davidson . . . Heinemann . . . 150
THE SUGAR PLANT ....... Warren . . . T. Hellawell . .102
WHITNEY'S COTTON-GIN Warren . . . F. Karst . . . .164
Sketched for this work from the original model in the pos
session of Eli Whitney, Esq.
MONTICELLO, THE HOME OF JEFFER
SON E. Clement . . .167
COURT-HOUSE AT CniLLicoTHE, Oino. Warren . . . Holsey . . • .168
From an old print.
FULTON'S FIRST STEAMBOAT . . . Warren . . . Ileinemann . . . 160
From an old print.
GATE OF THF MOUNTAINS, ON THE
Ui-i'ER MISSOURI Gary .... Knapp . . . .171
From a sketch.
TAKING DESERTERS FROM THE CHESA
PEAKE . Fredericks , . E. Clement . . .176
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. xvn
Title. Designer. Engraver. Page.
PORTRAIT OK JAMES MADISON . . . Beech J. Karst . . . .178
From the painting by Stuart.
PORTRAIT OF WILLIAM HENRY HAR
RISON Beech .... Knapp . . . .182
From the picture by Lumbdin.
BATTLE-FIELD OF TIPPECANOE . . . Warren . . . Heinemann . . .183
From a ri\-ent print.
THE TOMB OF WASHINGTON .... Warren . . . Edwards . . . .184
From a photograph.
DETROIT IN 1815 H. Karst . . . .185
From an old print.
BATTLE OF CHICAGO Sheppard . . . McCracken . . . 18!)
MAP OF NIAGARA RIVER Servoss . . . .191
BATTLE OF FORT STEPHENSON . . . Gary .... Knapp . . . .195
SACKETT'S HARBOR, 1814 Warren . . . Langridge . . .197
From the Port Folio for 1815.
PORTRAIT OF COMMODORE O. II.
PERRY Beech .... Treat 199
From the painting by Jar c is.
PORTRAIT OF TECUMSEH Beech .... Treat 200
From the drawing by Pierre Le Dru.
SIGNATURE OF RICHARD M.JOHNSON I^'gg0 201
THE CANOE FIGHT Shirlaw . . . J. P. Davis. . . 204
THE GRAVES OF THE CAPTAINS,
PORTLAND, MAINE Warren . . . Schultz .... 208
From a photograph for this trork.
MILLER'S CHARGE AT LUNDY'S LANE. Bolles .... Ilellawell . . .212
PLATTSBURG Warren . . . Meeder .... 215
From a photograph.
STONINGTON BOMBARDED Waiul .... Annin 217
COCKBURN IN THE CHAIR Fredericks . . J. Karst .... 221
FORT McllENKY Mayer. . . . Annin 223
THE ARMSTRONG AT FAYAL .... Waud .... Andrew .... 224
OLD STATE HOUSE, HARTFORD F. Karst .... 230
From a photograph for this irork.
JACKSON'S HEADQUARTERS, NEW OR
LEANS Warren . . . Pierson .... 234
From an old picture.
WASHINGTON Warren . . . E. Bookhout . . 238
From a sketch made about 1830.
DECATUR AND THE DEY OF ALGIERS . Waud .... Mollier .... 243
THE OLD UNITED STATES BANK,
PHILADELPHIA Schell . . . . F. Karst . . . . 245
From a sketch.
PORTRAIT OF DANIEL D. TOMPKINS Treat 247
From the painting /»/ Jar vis.
INDIANS IN AMBUSH Bolles. . . . J. Hellawell . . . 25o
AMELIA ISLAND Wand .... Varley . . . .251
From a print.
CAPTURE OF INDIAN CHIEFS .... Gary .... McCracken . . . 254
b
XV111
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.
Title. Designer. Erujrarer. Paije.
POK TRAIT OF JAMKS MONROE J. Karst .... '257
From a portrait by Vanderlyn.
CIIOTEAU'S POND, 1820, NOW IN ST.
Louis Warren . . . Clement .... 263
From a painting in the possession of 0. W. Collett, Es<{.,
St. Louis.
A SLAVE-COFFLE PASSING THK CAPI-
TOI Taylor .... Langridge . . . 266
A SUGAR PLANTATION Slieppard . . . Winliam .... 209
PORTRAIT OK JOHN RANDOLPH Pierson . . . .271
From a print.
LOCKS AT LOCKPORT, N. Y Warren . . . McCracken . . . 273
STEAMBOAT WALK-IN-THE-WATKR Heinemann . . .275
From an old print preserved in Detroit.
PORTRAIT OF WILLIAM H. CRAW
FORD Treat 277
From a painting by Jarvis.
THE ADAMS MANSION, QUINCY, MASS. Warren . . . Langridge . . . 283
Front <t photograph.
PORTRAIT OF HENRY CLAY J. Karst .... 287
From a print by Ritchie, after a daguerreotype.
NORTHERN INDUSTRY Share . . . . J. Karst . .
SOUTHERN INDUSTRY Taylor. . . . Pierson
BATTLE OF BAD AXE Gary .... Heinemann .
THE HERMITAGE — RESIDENCE OF
GENERAL JACKSON Warren . . . Mollier .... 208
From a print.
PORTRAIT OF ROGER B. TAXEY Knapp .... 3<>2
From a print of a portrait from lift.
A HICKORY POLE ELECTION .... Bolles .... McCracken .
MAKING COCKADES Beech .... Varley . .
FIRST LOCOMOTIVE BUILT IN AMER
ICA Warren . . . Bookhout . .
From a print after a contemporary drawing.
PORTRAIT OF SAMUEL SLATER .... ... Treat . . .
From a portrait in the possession of the family.
HEAD OF " THE LIBERATOR," FAC
SIMILE Photo-Eng. Co.
PORTRAIT OF WILLIAM LLOYD GAR
RISON J- Karst .
From a daguerreotype.
DISCOVERY OF NAT TURNER .... Shelton . . . Clement . .
PORTRAIT OF JOHN C. CALHOUN Treat . . .
From a print after a miniature liy Blanchard.
PORTRAIT OF WENDELL PHILLIPS Knapp .... 326
From a photograph.
THE DOMESTIC SLAVE-TRADE . . . Gary .... Leggo 320
From the Anti-slavery Record, 1835.
THK ALTON RIOT Warren . . . Bookhout. . . . 330
From the Alton Trials, by W. S. Lincoln, New York,
1888.
314
315
316
317
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. xix
Title. Designer. Em/raver. Page..
PORTRAIT OF JOHN G. WIIITTIER J. Karst . . . .331
From a portrait taken in 1838.
RUINS OF PENNSYLVANIA HALL . . Warren . . . Heinemann . . . 333
From a print in the History of Pennsylvania Hall.
BURNING MAIL-MATTER IN CHARLES
TON Sheppard . . . II. Karst. . . .337
PORTRAIT OF CINQUE Heinemann. . . 343
From a portrait from life by Jocelt/n.
THE NEGRO-PEW Andrew .... 348
From a sketch made in the old Church at Hingham, Mass.
OSCEOLA AT THE COUNCIL .... Shirlaw .... Heinemann . .
A CUBAN BLOODHOUND Beard . . . . J. Karst . . .
From a sketch.
PORTRAIT OF WILLIAM J. WORTH Knapp .... 354
From a print published during the Mexican War.
PORTRAIT OF MARTIN VAN BUREN Treat .'5-58
From a print after a daguerreotype.
PORTRAIT OF JOHN TYLER F. Karst .... 359
From Dick's print from a daguerreotype by Morand.
THE ALAMO Warren .... Holsey .... 362
From a print published during the Mexican War.
PORTRAIT OF SAM HOUSTON Langridge . . . 364
From an etching after a drawing from life.
PORTRAIT OF JAMES K. POLK J. Karst. . . . 368
From the painting by Healy.
PORTRAIT OF SANTA ANNA Treat 371
From a print published during the Mexican War.
PLAN OF THE BATTLE OF BUENA VISTA Leggo .... 374
From Colonel Mansfield's Map.
VERA CRUX Warren .... Britt 376
PORTRAIT OF WIXFIELD SCOTT F. Karst .... 380
From the painting by Weir.
CHAPULTEPEC Warren .... Pierson .... 382
From a photograph.
THE PLAZA OF THE CITY OF MEXICO . Taylor .... Holsey .... 385
SITE OF SAN FRANCISCO, IN 1848 . . Cary McCracken . . 387
From an engraving published in 1855.
SUTTER'S MILL Cary H. Karst .... 388
From an engraving published in 1855.
PORTRAIT OF ZACHARY TAYLOR. . . Beech . J. Karst .... 390
From a print published during his Presidency.
PORTRAIT OF DANIEL WEBSTER J. Karst .... 393
From a daguerreotype.
ADVERTISEMENTS OF FUGITIVE SLAVES Warren . . . Photo-eng. Co. . 395
Copied from newspapers of the time.
PORTRAIT OF MILLARD FILLMORE J. Karst . . . .397
From a print published during his Presidency.
RENDITION OF ANTHONY BURNS . . . Taylor . . . . J. Karst .... 401
PORTRAIT OF FRANKLIN PIERCE . Knapp .... 404
From the print by Ormsby.
xx LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.
Title. Designer. Engraver. Pay?..
PORTRAIT OF STEPHEN A. DOUGLAS Langridge . . . 407
From a photograph.
LAWRENCE, KANSAS Parsons . . . H. Karst . . . 409
From a print.
SOUTH CAROLINA TROOPS IN MISSOURI Share .... Held 412
JOHN BROWN'S LOG HOUSE .... Parsons. . . . Pierson . . . .413
From a print.
BORDER RUFFIANS INVADING KANSAS Share J. Karst . . . .414
PORTRAIT OF CHARLES SUMNER Heineman . . .41!)
From a daguerreotype.
PORTRAIT OF JAMES BUCHANAN J. Karst. . . . 423
From a daguerreotype.
SALT LAKK CITY Hosier .... Laudorbach . .427
From a picture drawn for Scribner's Magazine.
FAC-SIMILE OF CHARACTERS OF THE
MORMON PLATES Photo-eng. Co. . 428
JOHN BROWN J. Karst .... 42!)
From print of a portrait taken from life in Boston about 1858.
ARSENAL AT HARPER'S FERRY . . . Parsons .... Winham .... 430
JOHN BROWN'S PIKE Warren .... Leggo .... 431
In the possession of Albert G. Browne, Jr., New York.
LINCOLN'S EARLY HOME, ELIZABETH,
KENTUCKY Warren . . . Meeder .... 434
From a drawing.
FORTRESS MONROE Taylor .... Annin .... 43:">
From a sketch.
LINCOLN'S HOME IN SPRINGFIELD . . Warren . . . McCracken . . . 436
PORTRAIT OF JEFFERSON DAVIS Bross 43!)
From a photograph.
STREET BANNEH IN CHARLESTON . . Warren. . . . F. Karst . . . . 441
From the original in (lie possession of the Autltor.
MONTGOMERY, ALABAMA Warren .... Mollier .... 442
From a sketch.
EVACUATION OF FORT MOULTRIE . . Taylor .... Karst 443
PORTRAIT OF ROBERT ANDERSON Treat 444
From a print published during the irar.
PORTRAIT OF G. P. T. BEAUREGARD Knapp .... 44")
From a photograph.
SCENIC OF THE FIRST BLOODSHED,
BALTIMORE Warren .... Andrew .... 44(>
DEPARTURE OK THE SEVENTH REGI
MENT FROM NEW YORK Bolles I. Karst .... 448
PORTRAIT OF ALEXANDER H. STE
PHENS Knapp .... 41!)
From a photograph .
PORTRAIT OF IKVIN MCDOWELL F. Karst . . . . 452
From a photograph.
THE RETREAT OVER LONG BRIDGE . . Kelly .... Closson .... 453
PORTRAIT OF NATHANIEL LYON Knapp .... 455
From a photograph.
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. xxi
Title. Designer. Engraver. Paye.
PORTRAIT OF JOHN C. FREMONT Knapp 457
From a photograph.
PORTRAIT OF WILLIAM H. SEWARD J. Karst . . . .461
From a photograph.
BUGLER AT FORT MACON H. Pyle . . . Closson .... 463
INTERIOR OF THE MONITOR .... Davidson . . . H. Karst .... 465
PORTRAIT OF DAVID HUNTER Johnson .... 466
From a photograph.
PORTRAIT OF GEORGE B. MCCLELLAN F. Karst .... 468
From a photograph.
YORKTOWN Parsons . . . Annin .... 469
From a print published in 1862.
PORTRAIT OF GEORGE STONEMAN Langridge . . .470
From a photograph.
PORTRAIT OF SAMUEL P. HEINTZEL-
MAN Heinemann . . .471
From a photograph.
PANIC AT RICHMOND Sheppard . . . Andrew .... 472
THE WHITE HOUSE Parsons . . . Pierson . . . .475
From a print published in 1862.
PORTRAIT OF ERASTUS D. KEYES Langridge . . .476
From a photograph.
MILITARY BRIDGE OVER THE CHICK-
AHOMINY Cary . . . . J. Karst . . . .478
From a photograph.
HANOVER COURT HOUSE ...".. Filler .... Langridge . . . 479
From a sketch made during the war.
PORTRAIT OF JAMES LONGSTREET Bross 481
From a photograph.
COLD HARBOR Waud .... Andrew .... 484
From a sketch.
PORTRAIT OF EDWIN V. SUMNER Heinemann . . . 485
From a photograph.
GUNBOATS AT MALVERX HILL . . . Taylor. . . . Knapp 486
PORTRAIT OF ROBERT E. LEE Heinemann . . . 487
From a photograph.
FREDERICKSBURG Warren . . . Winham .... 492
From a picture published in 1862.
PORTRAIT OF HENRY W. HALLECK Treat 493
From a print published during the war.
CEDAR MOUNTAIN Waud .... Bogert 494
From a sketch.
STUART'S RAID Gary .... Heinemann . . . 495
PORTRAIT OF JOHN POPE Knapp 497
From a photograph.
PORTRAIT OF THOMAS J. (" STONE
WALL") JACKSON Bross 499
From a print published in Richmond during the war.
BRIDGE AT ANTIETAM Waud .... Langridge . . . 503
From a skr-irh made during the war.
xxii LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.
Title. Designer.
PORTRAIT OF EDWIN M. STANTON
Engraver.
. Picrson
Pay?.
505
From a p/totograph.
CULPEPPER COURT HOUSE .... Warren
. Pierson
507
From a photograph.
THE WALL AT FREDFRICKSBURG
. Bookhout
509
From a photograph taken the day after the battle.
PORTRAIT OF AMBROSE E. BURNSIDE ....
• Lan<rrid<ire .
511
From a photograph.
PORTRAIT OF SALMON P. CHASE
. J. Karst
. 5 1 •>
From a photograph.
PORTRAIT OF GIDEON WELLES
. Treat .
. .514
From a photograph.
FORT DOXELSON . Waud .
. Andrew .
. 510
From a sketch.
BRIDGE OVER THE CUMBERLAND AT
NASHVILLE Gary .... Langrid<j;e . . .518
From a sketch.
PORTRAIT OF ANDREW II. FOOTE J. Karst . . . .519
From a photograph.
PITTSHURG LANDING ....... Waud .... Varley .... 522
From a sketch.
CORINTH Waud .... Andrew .... 525
From a aketch.
CALDWELL BREAKING THE CHAIN . . Burns .... Heinemann . .
PORTRAIT OF GKOHGE H. THOMAS I. Karst .
From a photograph.
CUMBERLAND GAP Waud .... Andrew .... 533
From a sketch.
DANCING ON THE FLAG Fredericks . . J. Karst .... 535
PORTRAIT OF WILLIAM S. ROSECRANS Knapp 537
From a photograph.
VICKSHURG Waud .... Varley 539
From a photograph.
PORTRAIT OF DAVID D. PORTER Pierson . . . .541
From a photograph.
BATTLE-FLAG OF THE NINETY-NINTH
PENNSYLVANIA REGIMENT (CAR
RIED THROUGH THIRTEEN PITCHED
BATTLES) Warren . . . J. Clement . . . 542
PORTRAIT OF COLONEL ROBERT G
SHAW Treat 543
From a photograph.
REVIEW OF COLORED TROOPS . . . Bolles .... Heinemann . . . 544
PORTRAIT OF JOSEPH HOOKER J. Karst .... 54ti
From a photograph.
PORTRAIT OF OLIVER O. HOWARD Lan«rid<re . . . 547
From a photograph.
THE CHANCELLOR HOUSE Waud .... Langridge . . . 548
From a sketch.
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. xxm
Title. Designer. Engraver. P<t</?.
POKTKAIT OF JOHN SEDGWICK Heinemann . . . 550
From a photograph.
PORTRAIT OF GEORGK G. MKADK J. Karst . . . .551
From a photograph.
BATTLE-FIELD OF GETTYSBURG . . . Waud .... Langridge . . . 55:>
From sketches.
PORTRAIT OF GOUVERXEUR K. WAR-
RKX J. Karst .... 554
From a photograph .
PORTRAIT OF WIXFIELD S. HAXCOCK Treat 55(1
From a photograph.
PORTER'S FLEET Taylor. . . . Bookhout . . . . 55S
PORTRAIT OF NATHAXIEL P. BANKS Karsl 559
From a photograph.
PORTRAIT OF JAMES A. GARFIELD Karst 502
From a photograph taken in 1863.
CHATTAXOOGA Fitler . . . . E. Clement . . . 564
From a picture published during the u-ar.
DESTROYING A RAILROAD Taylor . . . . J. Karst .... 566
COLOXEI, BAILEY'S DAM Gary .... Brett 567
Front a print in the Report of the Secretary of the Navy,
1864.
MAKIXG ROAD THROUGH SWAMP . . Taylor . . . . E. Bookhout . . 56s
RICHMOND (AS IT APPEARED DURIXG
THE WAR) Sheppard . . . McCracken . . . 56!»
PORTRAIT OF WILLIAM T. SHERMAN. Granger . . . J. Karst .... 57o
From a pfiotograj/fi.
PORTRAIT OF AMBROSE P. HILL Treat 571
From a print published during the tear.
DEATH OF GENERAL SEDGWICK . . . Taylor. . . . Heinemann . . . 575
A PICKET GUARD Taylor . . . . E. Bookhout . . 578
PORTRAIT 01 OLIVER P. MORTON,
WAR-GOVEI:NOK OF IXDIAXA J. Karst .... f>7!»
From <i photograph.
PORTRAIT OK JOSEPH E. JOHXSTOX Knapp 580
From a photograph.
PORTRAIT OF JAMES B. McPiiERSox Heinemann . . . 582
From a photograph.
ATLANTA Warren . . . Bookhout. . . . 583
From a sketch made after the evacuation.
PORTRAIT OF HEXRY W. SLOCUM Langridge . . . 584
From a photograph.
PORTRAIT OF Jonx A. ANDREW. WAR-
GOVERNOR OF MASSACHUSETTS Karst 585
From a photograph.
RUINS OF FORT SUMTER Warren . . . Varley .... 586
From a photograph.
PRISONERS AT ANDERSONVILLE . . . Kappes . . . Heinemann . . . 588
DESTRUCTION- OF THE ALBEMARLE . Kappes . . . Heinemann . . . 5:tu
xxiv LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.
Title. Designer. Engraver. Pa;/e.
PETERSBURG Warren . . . Meeder .... 592
From a print published during the war.
PORTRAIT OF JOHN A. WINSLOW E. Clement . . . 595
From a photograph.
TAKING POSSESSION OF RICHMOND . . Kellv . . . Heard . . . 597
FULL-PAGE MAPS AND FAC-STMILES.
To far i'
Title. Pa<]c.
SIGNATURES TO THE TREATY OF PEACE (1783) 91
By permission, from the original in the Department of State in Washington.
SIGNATURES TO THE TREATY OF GHENT -241
J>// permission, from the original in the Department of Slate in Wnxhinnton.
MAP SHOWING TREATY BOUNDARIES ... .... 259
A PAGE FROM T*i" LOG-BOOK OF THE STEAMER SAVANNAH 27<>
From the original, bij permission of Mrs. S. A. Ward, New York.
REDUCED F AC-SIMILE OF THE ORIGINAL DRAFT OF THE PRELIMINARY
PROCLAMATION OF EMANCIPATION, IN THE HANDWRITING OF MR. LIN
COLN <;oo
From the original preserved in the Library of the State of New York, at Albany :
by permission of II. A. Homes, Esq., State Librarian.
MAP OF THE PENINSULA OF VIRGINIA . 604
SHERIDAN'S RIDK
A Mohawk Village in Central Ne
CHAPTER I.
SULLIVAN S EXPEDITION.
-FALL OF CHARLES
TIIEASON.
WASHINGTON'S OPPOSITION TO THE INVASION OF CANADA. — SULLIVAN'S EXPKDITION
IN CENTRAL NEW YORK. — THE BATTLE OF NEWTOWN. — INDIAN SETTLEMENTS
LAID WASTE. — BRODHEAD's EXPEDITION. BRANT*S REVENGE. — SPAIN DECLARES
WAR AGAINST ENGLAND. — OPERATIONS IN THE SOUTHWEST. — CONDITION OF THE
AMERICAN AND BRITISH FORCES. — ATTACK ON SAVANNAH. — SIEGE AND CAPTURE
OF CHARLESTON. — A SEVERE WINTER. — RAIDS IN NEW JERSEY. — SPRINGFIELD
BURNED. — ARRIVAL OF ROCHAMUEAU. — ARNOLD'S TREASON. — CORRESPONDENCE
WITH ANDRE. — IMPORTANCE OF WEST POINT. — THE CONFERENCE BETWEEN
ARNOLD AND ANDRE. — ANDRE'S CAPTURE AND ARNOLD'S ESCAPE. — ANALYSIS OF
THE AFFAIR.
IT was not without difficulty that, through the winter of 1778-79,
Washington persuaded Congress that its favorite plan for the Washington
conquest of Canada and Nova Scotia was unwise. That he cSL'ihe
advanced many arguments, and urged them with earnest- scheme-
ness and warmth ; that they were listened to with impatience, and
acceded to at last with reluctance, we know. The wisdom and pru
dence of the Commander-in-chief on this subject seem in nowise re
markable. It would seem rather that the military judgment of a
corporal should have been sufficient to decide upon the absurdity of
2
SULLIVAN'S EXPEDITION.
[CHAP. I.
such a movement under the existing circumstances, and that a Con
gress that proposed it must have been composed of members quite
unfit for the conduct of a great war.
But Washington so far yielded to a scheme which he could not
wholly defeat, as to approve of a proposal to take the British fort at
Niagara. It was not, however, that he thought the capture of the
fort of so much moment, as that an expedition against it must in
clude another object which he considered of greater importance. This
was the protection of the people of the frontier from the hostilities
of the Indians, who were
encouraged and aided by
the British from Canada.
Preparations were made
early in 1779 for carry
ing the war into Central
New York and Western
Pennsylvania, with so
much vigor that it was
hoped the power of the
savages, and their hardly
less savage allies, would
be completely broken,
and tranquillity secured
by their extermination
or expulsion.
The command of this
expedition was offered to
Gates, who declined it in
a letter which the Com
mander-in-chief j u s 1 1 y
considered as little less
General Sullivan- than insolent. It was
then given to Sullivan, who went to work with his usual energy,
though, perhaps, quite conscious that the task he had under
taken was more useful than glorious. The ostensible object
was, at least in part, the capture of the fort at Niagara; but the real
and essential purpose was the punishment of the Six Nations. Had
both been feasible, both, no doubt, would have been done; but one
only was possible with the means and force at command, and Sulli
van did not approach within seventy-five miles of Niagara River.
Washington's judgment in opposing the still more hazardous and
expensive project of an invasion of Canada was, as usual, uner
ring.
Sullivan's
expedition.
1779.] THE PLAN. 3
None knew so well as the Commander-in-chief the difficulty of even
holding the arrny together, and how impossible it would be Insubordi.
to provide the men and means for aggressive measures be- ^""^'ey
yond the boundaries of the States. When, early in May, tro°Ps-
the New Jersey Brigade was ordered to move from winter quarters at
Elizabethtown, the officers of an entire regiment sent in their resig
nations. They were impoverished for want of pay ; their families
at home were suffering for the necessaries of life ; they would not
abandon those who were dependent upon them, and their repeated
appeals to the Legislature for relief were unheeded. Such insubor
dination, by military law, was deserving of punishment. Washington
preferred rather to appeal to the patriotism of the men and their
pride of character, and the New Jersey Legislature was moved at
length to relieve their necessities. Troubles like these, though inev
itable from the poverty of the people, were' aggravated by the diffi
culty of carrying on a war conducted by a confederation of States,
each giving or withholding, for a common purpose, as suited their
own convenience or inclination, but without mutual submission to a
common will.
The expedition was to move in three divisions, — the centre, under
Sullivan himself, from Wyoming ; the right wing, under
General James Clinton, from the Mohawk ; the left, under
Colonel Daniel Brodhead, from Pittsburg, — all to be under Sullivan
when the forces were united. It was no fault of Sullivan's that the
spring and summer were consumed in preparations, from early in
May till late in August, for his commissary department was so tardily
and so wretchedly supplied that he had neither food nor clothing for
his men. His complaints and remonstrances were, at length, listened
to, but his frankness raised up enemies against him in Congress, and
made him unpopular in Pennsylvania. In that State, a large party
was opposed to the expedition, partly because the Friends denied the
necessity of hostile measures against the Indians, and partly because
Pennsylvania was expected to assume a large share of the burden of
protecting her western territory.
Clinton was at the outlet of Otsego Lake, where it flows into the
Susquehanna River, early in July, with 1,700 men. Here Clinton-s
he awaited orders for about a month, but occupied the time niOTement-
in building a dam across the head of the river, to store water enough
to float his boats down the stream, in case of a summer drouth, when
the advance should be made. The lake was raised three or four feet
in height ; on the 9th of August the dam was broken, and the lib
erated waters filled the bed of the river to its brink, bearing along
the two hundred and twenty boats upon its full tide, to the astonish-
4 SULLIVAN'S EXPEDITION. [CHAP. I.
merit and alarm of the Indians at this sudden flood. Near the pres
ent village of Union the division was met by a detachment from Sul
livan, under General Poor ; and on the 26th of August the com
bined forces moved from Fort Sullivan on Tioga Point, now the
village of Athens, in Pennsylvania.
The long and elaborate preparations for the campaign had not been
unheeded by the English and the Indians. As early as April, a detach
ment from Fort Schuyler of six hundred men, under Colonel Van
Schaick, had entered the Indian country and destroyed a town of the
Onondagas. In July, the enemy, alarmed at the progress of the army,
had attempted to divert it from its purpose by an attack upon a fort
on the Susquehaima, and on the settlements in Orange County and
on the Lackawaxen River. Sullivan, early in August, had destroyed
the Indian village of Chemung, not without resistance, and with some
loss.
A few miles above this point, on the Chemung River, was the In-
Battieof dian village of Newtown, now Elmira. Here Sullivan found
Newtown. t])e enemy jn force, numbering altogether, probably, about
twelve hundred men, made up of British regulars, Tories, and In
dians, under Captain Macdonald of the British army, the Tory par
tisans Colonel John Butler and his son, Captain Walter N. Butler,
and the Mohawk chief, Joseph Brant.
On a steep ridge between a creek and the river, this force was dis
posed in a position protected on two sides by a bend in the river,
and skilfully strengthened in front by a breastwork, partially con
cealed among pine trees and shrub oaks and branches artfully placed
among them. It was meant as an ambush ; the advancing Ameri
cans, it was supposed, would wind along the base of the ridge by an
open path, parallel to the breastwork, and when their flank was com
pletely exposed, a deadly fire from twelve hundred hidden rifles was
to be poured into them from the heights above. Sullivan commanded
not less than three thousand men, led by able and experienced sol
diers. If stratagem did not succeed against them, there was little
chance of hindering their advance.
The stratagem was not successful. The earthworks were discov
ered by the advanced guard, and from a tall tree a rifleman descried
the whole plan of offence and defence. Discovery was equivalent to
defeat. A portion of the army under General Hand was brought in
front of the enemy into line, which Brant and his Indians, by repeated
and desperate sorties, attempted to break. While they were so occu
pied in front, Generals Poor and Clinton were quietly making their
way through woods and swamps for an attack on the rear and flank.
The enemy were caught in the trap which they had hoped would be
1779.]
INDIAN SETTLEMENTS LAID WASTE.
fatal to their opponents. The artillery, under Colonel Proctor, opened
fire upon the breastworks and their defenders at the moment that
Poor's men, followed by Clinton's, rushed up the hill in the rear with
the cry of u Remember Wyoming !" The English and their allies
were outgeneralled as well as outnumbered, and though they fought
with courage, they were driven at length to headlong flight. Their
loss was so heavy, — while Sullivan's was slight, — and their defeat
so complete, that neither Brant's power, the influence of the Tories,
nor the promises of the English, could rally the Indians again in any
large numbers to oppose Sullivan's progress.
Destruction of Indian Villages.
Two days later the army resumed its march, and for weeks its prog
ress was marked by utter desolation. The Six Nations Thrjft0fthe
had achieved a degree of civilization unknown before that Six Natlons-
time to the American Indians, and never since attained by them
except among the Cherokees. They had gathered together in towns ;
log-huts, and even frame-houses, convenient, rudely furnished, and
well-painted, hail taken the place of wigwams. Their subsistence
they gained in part by agriculture ; their habitations were sur
rounded by many hundreds of cultivated acres, and they had planted
thousands of fruit-trees, many already in full bearing.
Sullivan spared neither the people nor their possessions,
He met sometimes with desperate resistance, and the most
cruel tortures were inflicted upon some of his men who fell into the
try aevas-
6 SULLIVAN'S EXPEDITION. [CHAP. I.
hands of the Indians. The provocation, on the other hand, was ter
rible. Of forty villages, some of them containing more than a hun
dred houses, not a trace was left, except in ashes. Every fruit-bearing
tree was cut down, and in one orchard alone there were fifteen hun
dred peach trees; two hundred thousand bushels of Indian corn, im
mense quantities of potatoes, beans, and other products of their farms
and gardens, which the thrifty natives were about to harvest for win
ter use, were destroyed.
The objective point of the expedition, probably, was really not
Niagara, but the Seneca Castle, or town, the chief westernmost set
tlement of the Six Nations, the extreme western door of the Long
House, as they designated their confederacy. At this point, not far
from Geneseo, on the Genesee River, Sullivan retraced his footsteps.
The work was done thoroughly, with a loss to him of not more than
forty men. The Indians had neither shelter nor food to carry them
through the ensuing winter, which happened to be one of the severest
on record, and many of them perished from want and disease. Their
power was broken, and though they resumed, the following year, their
depredations upon the border settlements, they ceased from that time
to be the formidable enemy whose alliance with the English was an
important incident in the progress of the war. Sullivan resigned
his commission soon after rejoining Washington's army, and it was
accepted by Congress ; not, however, Because of any disapprobation
of his merciless warfare against the Indians, but because he had in
curred the enmity of many members of Congress by his frank and
perhaps imprudent reflections upon the conduct of the war.1
Colonel Daniel Brodhead, who was in command of the fort at Pitts-
Hrodhciurs burg, started early in August, in obedience to instructions
expedition. from tne Commander-in-chief, on an expedition up the Alle-
ghany River, with about six hundred men. It was to have started
some months earlier, and to join Sullivan in an attack upon Niagara ;
but the purpose, at last, was only to punish the Indians, destroy their
villages and corn-fields, and in so doing make a diversion that should
be of effectual aid to Sullivan's more general campaign. The march
was almost wholly within the boundaries of Pennsylvania, and in the
course of it they crossed " a creek called Oil Creek," to be famous
nearly a century afterward. In the oil which the soldiers found float
ing upon the top of a spring, they bathed their joints, to " the great
relief of the rheumatism with which they were afflicted."
The expedition, though occupying a comparatively short time and
1 The fullest and most accurate history of Sullivan's campaign is given in the Centennial
Addresses of the Rev. David Craft, at the celebration in August, 1879, at Klmira, Waterloo,
and Geneseo, N. Y.
1779.] WAR IN THE SOUTHWEST. 7
few men, was of signal service, in the general plan of striking a blow
at the Six Nations that should be fatal to the strength of that con
federacy. In his month's absence from Pittsburg, Brodhead destroyed
many villages and hundreds of acres of growing corn, without the loss
of a man. The tribes he attacked were too much taken up in their
own defence to reenforce those whom Sullivan was driving before him,
and a number of hostile chiefs hastened to Pittsburg at Brodhead's
return, with solemn promises of their future good behavior.1 Some of
them may have kept these promises ; but many more, doubtless, were
mindful rather of their wrongs. How well these were remembered,
Brant and three hundred of his warriors showed the next Brant-s re.
summer, when, in conjunction with a force of British troops v
and Tories, a raid was made into the Mohawk Valley, its farms laid
waste, the dwellings, barns, and crops given to the flames, cattle and
sheep destroyed, and no mercy shown to either man or woman.
The declaration of war made this summer by Spain against Eng
land, strengthened the bonds of friendship between Spain War in the
and the United States, and John Jay was sent out as minis- Southwest-
ter with power to negotiate for the free navigation of the Mississippi
and a loan of five million dollars. The injury done to England, how
ever, was much greater than any immediate benefit to the United
States. Galvez, the young and ambitious Governor of Louisiana,
moved up the Mississippi with a force of nearly fifteen hundred men
- Oliver Pollock, the agent of Congress, with a company of volun
teers, making a part of the expedition — and soon captured the Brit
ish posts of Fort Manchac, Baton Rouge, and Natchez. These suc
cesses were followed by others ; eight English vessels were captured
on Lake Pontchartrain and on the Mississippi soon after the fall of
the forts, and a few months later Mobile was taken, the last post in
West Florida, except Pensacola, in British possession. That also was
reduced by Galvez the next year. But important as these conquests
seemed at the time to Spain, and to Spain alone, they were, in the
end, of infinitely more moment to the United States. Had England
been in possession of the Mississippi as well as of the St. Lawrence,
at the negotiation of peace, — however idle it may be to speculate
upon what might have been, in that case, the history of the North
American Continent for the next hundred years, — it is not difficult
to see that the United States would have had, in all human proba
bility, quite another destiny.
1 Brodhead's expedition has usually been considered of little moment, and it has even
been denied, or doubted, by some writers, that it ever took place. Its incidents are for the
first time carefully collated and fully told by Obed Edsou, in The Magazine of History for
November, 1879.
8 THE WAR AT THE SOUTH. [CHAP. I.
What was not was not to be ; else one might indulge also in specu
lation as to the probable result of the war, had not the Brit-
of the new ish ministry determined that the basis of operations should
be removed from the Northern to the Southern States. The
attempt to suppress rebellion in the North had been baffled for nearly
five years ; it would be, it was thought, a wiser plan, and more easily
accomplished, to overrun the sparsely populated southern country,
separate its States from the Union, and compel its people to return to
their allegiance to the King. Congress and the Commander-in-chief
had good reason to be alarmed at this determination.
It was with the utmost difficulty they could deal with the perils
which already confronted them, and reduced them often almost to
despair. The army mustered only about fifteen thousand men en
listed for the war, and of these not more than eleven or twelve
thousand were in the ranks. The terms of service of about twelve
thousand additional militia would expire at intervals during the first
half of 1780, and whether these would reenlist, or their places could
be supplied by raw recruits, was a contingency beyond control or
calculation. The pay of the soldiers was months in arrears ; they
were always without sufficient clothing and the ordinary necessities
of comfort in camp life, often without provisions for two days in
advance, and sometimes without rations for the passing day. The
one thing that was plentiful was paper money, and that, at the cur
rent rate of forty to one, was the one thing that was almost good for
nothing. As it would pay for so little, and was so little pay for
what it bought, it hardly added to the general distress that the neces
sities of the army were met by requisitions upon the country for food
and forage wherever they could be found. The government was
kept afloat by foreign loans.
With this miserable army Washington confronted Clinton, who
commanded a well-appointed force of nearly thirty thousand men, in
New York and its dependencies. To be always on the vigilant defen
sive, and to watch warily for every chance to strike a telling blow at
any unguarded or carelessly guarded point, was the policy of the
American General. It was fortunate for him that Clinton, with his
greater strength and superior resources, either from want of energy
or courage, was even less aggressive. He was content to watch
Washington, as Washington was compelled to watch him.
But there was this important difference in their conditions : Clin
ton could threaten more than one point by detachments from the
army with which he perpetually menaced the Northern and Middle
States ; while Washington had neither men nor means to meet any
such movements. Clinton knew, quite as well as he, the difficul-
1779.]
ATTACK ON SAVANNAH.
ties of the situation, and that, so far as the main army in the field
was concerned, either the North or the South must be left defence
less. The conclusion was obvious, — the conquest of either North or
South would be easy and inevitable, and the conquest of one was the
conquest of both. Sound as the reasoning seemed, it was a fatal
mistake.
Lincoln's success in maintaining his position at Charleston sug
gested, perhaps, that the aspect of affairs would seem less
hopeless if Savannah could be retaken. D'Estaing was in in the
the West Indies, where he had gained more credit for the
French arms than in his abortive movements about Rhode Island the
year before. He consented to give his aid in a brief campaign in
Georgia, and early in September appeared off the coast with a fleet
of about forty ships, carrying six thousand troops.
D'Estaing had sent Avord of his approach to General Lincoln, who
immediately left Charleston for Savannah, with the Conti- Attackon
nental force under his command and a body of militia. Be- Savannah-
fore his arrival, D'Estaing had invested the town and summoned it
to surrender, not, however,
in the name of the allied
powers, but in that of the
King of France. This
breach of military etiquette,
if it was no worse, was either
explained or overlooked, —
perhaps, even, would have
been altogether forgotten,
had not the French com
mander, by his want of
promptness now, as by his
want of promptness the year
before at Rhode Island,
thrown away the opportu
nity of achieving success. To
his demand for surrender,
the British General, Prevost,
asked for a truce of twenty-
four hours, and it was
granted. In the time thus
gained he completed his
works of defence, and was
reinforced by Lieutenant-colonel Maitland with eight hundred vet
erans then stationed at Beaufort. Before their arrival, the city was
General Lincoln.
10 THE WAR AT THE SOUTH. [CHAP. I.
at D'Estaing's mercy ; for not more than ten guns were mounted then
upon the unfinished earthworks. With such an addition to its gar
rison, Prevost's final answer to the demand for surrender was an an
swer of defiance. Within a few days his defences were completed,
and surmounted by eighty heavy guns.
About a month had elapsed since the arrival of the French fleet,
and D'Estaing was in haste to return to his station in the West In
dies, partly to escape the probable storms of the autumn, and partly
to avoid the possible arrival of an English fleet from New York.
Either the siege must be abandoned, or the place carried by assault,
for D'Estaing either could not or would not await the completion of
trenches. On the 9th of October the attempt was made.
Here, at least, there was no reason for reflecting upon D'Estaing.
He was twice wounded as, with Lincoln, he led the attack. The com
bined forces engaged in the assault numbered more than four thou
sand men, and they were aided by a cannonade of shot and shell from
the French fleet. But the defence was conducted with great skill
and courage, and with an advantage from behind abatis and earth-
work-s that outweighed numbers. The assailants, crowded together
within the redoubt, were exposed for nearly an hour to a terrible fire,
while the utmost they could do was to plant a French and an Amer
ican standard upon the ramparts.
This was the centre of intensest interest. Sergeant Jasper, who
had restored the flag to its place when shot dowTn at Fort Moultrie at
the beginning of the war, was here mortally wounded in defence of
his colors ; three lieutenants, Bush, Thomas, and Grey, fell with the
staves in their hands, — Bush with the flag beneath him ; and one
only of the standards was rescued from the hands of the enemy by
Sergeant McDonald, who escaped unhurt. The British lost less than
fifty killed, and not many more wounded and missing ; while on the
other side the loss, in killed and wounded, was between eleven and
twelve hundred, including many officers, and chief among them the
Count Pulaski, who fell mortally wounded at the head of his bat
talion. It was the end of the siege of Savannah ; in ten days the
French fleet was under sail for the West Indies, and Lincoln was
compelled to return to Charleston.
Georgia was virtually restored to the Crown, so far as the province
was under any civil government at all, and Clinton, encour-
Clintoii goes i i i o
tocharicH- aged by the repulse at savannah, resolved upon energetic
measures for the reduction of the whole South. Late in De
cember, he embarked with seven thousand five hundred men for
Charleston, leaving Knyphausen in command at New York, with force
enough to occupy Washington's attention, who, compelled to detach
1779-80.]
A SEVERE WINTER.
11
the Virginia and Maryland troops for Southern service, could under
take no aggressive movements of importance.
The winter was one of exceptional severity, and the American
army at Morristown endured almost the extremity of suffer- Severityof
ing from cold, from want of food, and want of clothing.
Even the British troops, in their comfortable quarters in New York,
were compelled to submit to many privations, while they could not
relax their vigilance for an hour. They were in perpetual fear of
Fall of Sergeant Jasper.
attack, for the town could be approached on either side over the solid
ice which closed the North River, the East River, and the bay for
miles. Each army did all it could to harass the other during the
winter. Lord Stirling crossed the Kill on the ice, at Elizabethtown,
to Staten Island, marched two thousand men nearly to the Narrows,
and burned a fortified house and several vessels, with slight loss. A
few days afterward a party of the enemy crossed from the Island
to Elizabethtown, and burned the Presbyterian meeting-house, the
12 THE WAR AT THE SOUTH. [CHAP. I.
court-house, and some private dwellings ; and the same night another
party crossed the North River in sleighs, marched to New
ark, burned the academy, and sacked some of the houses.
These and similar excursions served to exercise the vigilance and
keep up the discipline of the men on both sides through the winter
months.
It was near the middle of March before Clinton could take any
effectual steps for investing Charleston, for his voyage from New
York was tempestuous, and several of his transports were lost. The
garrison of the town was about three thousand men, and General
Lincoln believed he could hold it, provided it was approached from
the land side only. Commodore \Y hippie was in the hurbor with
nine small vessels, and with these, and the guns of Fort Moultrie, he
was confident the British fleet could be prevented from crossing the
bar. But the bar was passed without difficulty or opposition, and
W hippie could put his small fleet to no better use than to sink the
whole of it, with the exception of one ship, at the mouth of Cooper
River, to obstruct that channel. A few days later, the enemy passed
Fort Moultrie and anchored in front of the town.
Clinton in the mean time had made good his position in the rear
siege of °f the town, where Lincoln had thrown up fortifications and
Charleston. jug a cana| aCvoss the low lands between the two rivers.
These works were not formidable, as Lincoln had not feared an attack
from that direction that he could not repel so long as the harbor was
in his possession. With a fleet in front, holding the town under its
guns, Clinton could make his approaches at his leisure, and wait for
reenforcements from Savannah.
With the completion of his first parallel on the 10th of April, at a
distance of about a thousand yards, the town was summoned to sur
render. Lincoln replied, that "• duty and inclination pointed to the
propriety of supporting it to the last extremity,"' for he might, he
said, have abandoned it at any time, had he seen fit, during the sixty
days that had elapsed since the siege began. This was quite true
during the earlier weeks of the siege, so far as his movements could
be controlled by the enemy ; but it was not quite true that his action
and judgment had been entirely unrestrained. The question had been
warmly discussed, in more than one council of war, after the British
fleet had crossed the bar, whether it was not wiser to save the army
by retreat, rather than await almost certain capture ; and the decis
ion to remain was influenced, if it was not absolutely determined, by
the threats of the townspeople, that if the attempt were made " they
would cut up his [Lincoln's] boats, and open the gates to the en
emy."1
1 Moiiltrii-.'s Memoirs.
1780.] SURRENDER OF CHARLESTON. 13
But retreat soon ceased to be possible. The cavalry stationed at
Monk's Corner, about thirty miles up the Cooper River, were sur
prised and dispersed ; a like misfortune befell a post on the San tee,
where Colonels White, Washington, Jamieson, and other officers saved
themselves by swimming the river ; some smaller posts nearer the
city were necessarily abandoned, and Lincoln's only available road of
escape, between the Cooper and Santee rivers, was cut off. Clinton
closed slowly but surely around the city. Early in May, P'ort Moul-
trie was surrendered ; the third parallel was finished a few days later
within a few yards of the canal ; the canal, the first barrier of the
besieged, was drained and occupied by the enemy ; and the town
was then at his mercy. Negotiations were begun on the 8th of May,
and concluded on the 12th, by honorable capitulation. The gun.enderof
Adjutant-general, John Andre, reported the number of male thecltJ-
citizens as prisoners at nearly six thousand; these and the militia
were released on parole, while the Continental troops and seamen were
held as prisoners of war.
The failure to take Savannah the previous autumn, and the loss
now of Charleston and of the whole southern army at a single blow,
were most serious disasters to the cause of the Americans. The Brit
ish army in Georgia and South Carolina numbered nearly fourteen
thousand men, and with Charleston and Savannah as their base, the
easy and early subjugation of all the Southern States seemed certain.
Clinton spoke with entire confidence of the absolute possession of
Georgia and South Carolina, but his conduct showed ut first Clinton's
that he looked upon the population of both as a people P°llcy-
still to be conciliated, and not as one already subdued. Had he con
tinued in this temper, he would have left a less difficult task to his
successor. A large number of persons had given their paroles and
accepted protections, with the understanding that they should be ex
empt from any participation in the war on either side. But Clinton,
in a second proclamation, required that " all persons should take an
active part in settling and securing his Majesty's government," and
that those who neglected to do so should be considered as *" enemies
and rebels."
There were many who would consent to remain in an attitude of
neutrality in the contest, who were by no means willing to take up
arms against their own countrymen. A Major James was sent as the
representative of some of this class to ask of Captain Ardesoif, the
commander of the British post at Georgetown, an explanation of the
proclamation. The answer he received was, that " his Majesty offers
you a free pardon, of which you are undeserving, for you all ought to
be hanged ; but it is only on condition that you take up arms in his
THE WAR AT THE SOUTH.
[CHAP. I.
cause." James replied that those whom he represented would not
submit to such conditions. " Represent ! " shouted the British officer ;
"you damned rebel! if you dare speak in such language, I will have
you hung up at the yard-arm ! " James, who was unarmed, knocked
him down with a chair, for answer, and left him senseless. The five
brothers of the James family were from that moment among the most
active partisans of the State.1 Many followed their example. Clinton
James and Ardcsoif.
foolishly compelled them to fight, and under that compulsion they
preferred to fight against the King, — not for him.
When the news of the fall of Charleston reached New York, Knyp-
hausen was persuaded that it would so discourage the soldiers of
the American army in New Jersey, whose privations and complaints
1 Life of Francis Marlon, by W. G. Simms.
1780.] RAIDS IN NEW JERSEY. 15
were well known to him, that they would be an easy conquest. On
the 6th of June, he crossed with six thousand troops from
. -. Knyphausen
Staten Island to Elizabetntown Point, and marched toward invades New
the village of Connecticut Farms, seven miles beyond Eliza-
bethtown. The militia, under Colonel Elias Dayton, and a brigade
of Continental troops under General William Maxwell, from whom
Knyphauseii expected a welcome, disputed every foot of the road
from sunrise till dark, as the British advanced. They fell back step
by step before a superior force, but it was with the utmost coolness
and good order. In the course of the day the village of Connecticut
Farms was burned, and the wife of the clergyman, the Rev. James
Caldwell, was killed by a shot through the window of the room
where she was sitting surrounded by her children. It was asserted
iu the contemporary reports in the New Jersey and Pennsylvania
newspapers, that this was the deliberate deed of a passing British
soldier,1 and the statement, though denied on the other side, was gen
erally believed, and excited universal indignation.
When at last the Americans crossed the Railway, at Springfield,
and Washington had advanced to their support, if needed, Knyphau-
sen fell back the way he came. " At the middle of the night," —
wrote Maxwell, to Governor Livingston, of New Jersey, — "the en
emy sneaked off and put their backsides to the Sound near Elizabeth-
town." They held the road from Elizabetntown to De Hart's Point
on the Kill van Kull.
On the 17th of June, Clinton, having taken unwittingly the first
step in the train of events that was to lead to the loss of the
cause entrusted to him, arrived from Charleston. Six days turns to
New York
afterward lie ordered another movement, the preparations
for which were watched with anxiety. Washington at first supposed
an attack upon West Point was intended, but he divined Clinton's in
tention in season to meet the advance into New Jersey. Greene was
put in command of about fifteen hundred men at Springfield, and with
Maxwell's and Stark's brigades and Lee's infantry, was ready to give * ^
the; enemy a warm reception. Colonels Angell, Shreve, and Dayton, j'
with their respective regiments, opposed one column of the enemy, J
and Major Lee with his cavalry and Colonel Ogden with his regiment
checked the other. Dayton's militia were inspired by the presence
and example of their chaplain, Caldwell, whose wife had been shot
only a few days before. When the men were in want of wadding for
their guns, he distributed hymn-books among them, with the Springfieid
exhortation, " Put Watts into them, boys ! " 2 Springfield, bunied-
however, was taken and burned, and the enemy then returned to
Staten Island.
1 See Moore's Diary of the Revolution. 2 Irving's Life of Washington.
16 ARNOLD'S TREASON. [CHAP. I.
On the llth of July, five thousand French troops, under De Ro-
chambeau, arrived at Newport, the first division of an army
Bocham- of twelve thousand men which Lafayette had induced the
King to promise should be sent to America. Again, for a
time, the French alliance proved rather a hindrance than a help. The
enthusiasm aroused by Rochambeau's arrival was almost extravagant,
and important and decisive measures, it was supposed, would imme
diately follow. Washington proposed to move, supported by the
French, upon the city of New York. But it was the 15th before the
French troops were all landed, and nearly one fifth of them, sick from
a voyage of seventy days, were sent into hospitals ; on the 21st, an
English fleet was seen in the offing ; on the 25th, a messenger was sent
by Rochambeau to the government of Massachusetts to ask that the
troops of that province might be ordered to reen force his army, as he
had just learned from Washington that Newport was to be attacked
by the British.1 That it was not attacked, was due solely to a disa
greement between Sir Henry Clinton and Admiral Arbuthnot. When,
a little later, a squadron under Admiral Rodney joined that of Arlmth-
not to make the blockade of Newport effectual, a considerable force
was detached from the American army to aid in the defence of the
allies and their fleet.
It was an autumn of enforced inactivity and of hope deferred ; and
Arnold's while the country was under these depressing influences, it
was shocked by the disclosure of Arnold's long premeditated
treachery, which, had it been successful, would have led, no doubt, to
the most disastrous consequences. For eighteen months he had been
in communication with Sir Henry Clinton, to whom, through Major
John Andre, Adjutant-general of the British army, he had given, from
time to time, much valuable information. His schemes were now
complete, through which he believed that, by the sacrifice of his coun
try, he could achieve rank, and fame, and wealth for himself.
It is not unusual to explain Arnold's crime by the suggestion of
iiischarac- some extraordinary impulse — as that a proud and haughty
spirit could not brook certain humiliations which had been
put upon him in the American army — that a lofty ambition led him
to extravagances in his way of living from which it was difficult, if
not impossible, to extricate himself, while the very heedlessness with
which they were incurred was the evidence only of a warm and gen
erous temper. It is difficult to admit that his conduct may be so
explained when his whole career, both before and after his treason,
is considered. He was certainly distinguished for wonderful energy
1 Journal of Claude Blunchard, Commissary of the French Auxiliary Army sent to the United
States during the American Revolution, 1780-1783.
1780.]
CORRESPONDENCE WITH ANDRE.
17
and remarkable physical courage ; and as a soldier these seem to
have been his chief merits. But there was something in the way of
his success which, from the beginning of his public life, always con
fronted him among those who knew him best, and those whose duty
it was to fathom his true character. There was an apparently in
surmountable distrust of his integrity, and, with some, a vague, but
positive, suspicion of his loyalty. His dash excited admiration, and
at first won him hosts of unthinking friends ; but the more reflecting
looked for, and did not find, in his conduct, that rigid rule of a severe
morality and that keen sense of honor of which he was so apt in
boasting.1 The treatment he received from Congress, in 1777, in
relation to his commission as
Major-general, is in itself al
most his condemnation, as it
could not have been without
strong reasons ; that he should
not have immediately retired
from public life on being so
treated, is a remarkable proof of
that absence of self-respect that
fully justifies the withholding of
respect in others.
While in command at Phila
delphia, he had married a second
wife, a daughter of Edward
Shippen, a distinguished Tory.
In the gay winter of 1777, when
Sir William Howe occupied the
city, this young lady was a fa
vorite of the British officers, and
after her marriage she kept up
a correspondence with Major Andre. The assertion, so generally
made, that Arnold took advantage of this correspondence to put
himself in communication with Andre, can hardly be true ; for Mrs.
Arnold was ignorant, till the last moment, of the treacherous rela
tion her husband had established with the enemy, and Andre and
Sir Henry Clinton were for a long time unable to ascertain the real
name of the person to whom they were indebted for much valuable
information. Arnold may have detected something in the tone
of the letters to his wife, that led him to believe he would find in
Andrd one with whom he could safely conspire in his intended trea
son ; but he could not have availed himself of the communication al-
1 See Sparks's Life of Benedict Arnold.
VOL. IV. 2
Benedict Arnold.
18 ARNOLD'S TREASON. [CHAI-. I.
ready existing, without exciting suspicion in his wife, or betraying
his identity to her friend.
The correspondence that followed was conducted under the pre
tence of being upon commercial affairs, Andre assuming the
ence with name of " John Anderson," and Arnold that of •' Gustavus."
For months it was necessarily confined to keeping the Brit
ish officer, and through him the British Commander-in-chief, carefully
informed of military and civil intelligence that could be of use to the
enemy. The estimation in which this was held was much increased
when Clinton was led by several circumstances to conjecture the
name of his correspondent, and was then assured that still more im
portant services were to come.
While in command in Philadelphia, various charges had been
preferred ;igainst Arnold by the State, which brought him in the end
before a court-martial. When again restored to active service, —
after receiving a public rebuke from the Commander-in-chief, in ac
cordance with the sentence of the court, — lie contrived, under pre
tence that an old wound unfitted him for duty in the field, to get the
appointment of commander of West Point. It was perfectly char
acteristic of the man — of his self-conceit and his insolence, of his
reckless disregard of truth, of his bold hypocrisy and pretence of honor
— that he should have said before the court-martial, after recount
ing his own services and merits: tk When our illustrious General was
retreating through New Jersey with a handful of men, I did not pro
pose to my associates basely to quit the General, and sacrifice the
cause of my country to my personal safety, by going over to the enemy
and making my peace." The allusion was to President Reed, of
Pennsylvania, about whom there were some whispered suspicions ] —
then for the first time publicly alluded to. Yet at this moment Ar
nold had been already for months in secret communication with the
enemy, and was only delaying some final act of stupendous treachery
till he was in a position to make it the most disastrous to his country.
He had attained to that position in the command of West Point,
and had skilfully manoeuvred to acquire it for the sole pur-
of west pose of betraying his trust, and selling himself at a high
price. When he proposed to Clinton to put him in pos
session of the place, that general wrote to the Ministry that it was
worth being secured "at every risk and at any expense. ' As a mil
itary post, its acquisition would be as important to one party as its
loss would be serious to the other. It commanded the navigation of
the Hudson, and, to a certain degree, the communication with Canada,
and between the Northern and Southern States ; it and its dependen-
1 See vol. iii., p. 526, note.
1780.]
THE CONFERENCE WITH ANDRE.
19
cies were held by garrisons numbering more than three thousand
men ; they were defended by about one hundred guns, and contained
large stores of provisions and ammunition. With the betrayal of the
place, a large portion of the men and property, it was supposed, would
be captured.
It was necessary that the final arrangement should be made by a
personal interview, and it was by botli Clinton's and Ar-
. . i/'i IT The confcr-
nold s wish that this was intrusted to Andre, through whom en<-c-witu
the correspondence had all along been conducted. To one
other person only in the British army — Colonel Beverley Robinson,
commanding a regi
ment of American
Loyalists — was the
negotiation known.
A rn old wa s too
wary to trust any
one on his own side
with a knowledge
of his contemplated
villany. Robinson's
estate was opposite
West Point, on the
other side of the
river, and the house
was occupied by
Arnold as his head
quarters. Under a pretence of asking for a conference in regard to
the restitution of this confiscated property, Robinson attempted to
bring about a meeting between the conspirators. To allay suspicion,
the letter — which on its face seemed innocent enough — was shown
to Washington, who objected to the interview, as the question seem
ingly proposed to be discussed could only, he said, be settled by the
civil authorities.
Arnold had some days before attempted to get Andrd •within the
American lines as a merchant, under the name of " John Anderson,"
and had directed Colonel Sheldon, in command of a post at Lower
Salem, Westchester County, to receive and have him conducted to
headquarters. Probably the hazard of going openly within the ene
my's lines under an assumed name, and with a pretended purpose,
deterred Andre from this undertaking ; for he could hardly have
failed to reflect that if his true character were discovered he would
be arrested as a spy, and the exposure of the plot would follow.
There is, indeed, no other supposable reason for his rejecting this
Robinson's House
20 ARNOLD'S TREASON. [CHAP. 1.
method of bringing about the desired and essential interview ; and
had he never abandoned that cautious conduct, but had compelled
Arnold to take the risk which in any case would attend the accom
plishment of his purpose, the less guilty of the two conspirators
would have escaped an ignominious death. At any rate, Andre de
clined Arnold's invitation, and appointed to meet him at Dobbs
Ferry. Arnold attempted this, but failed for want of proper pre
caution somewhere, was fired upon by the guard-boats, and came
near being taken prisoner. Two days later he again attempted to
induce Andre to come within the American lines, promising that a
trusty person should meet him at Dobbs Ferry and conduct him, in
disguise, to a place of safety, where the interview should take place.
At the same time, in case Andre should have changed his mind, and
be willing now to take the hazard of a ride to headquarters through
the American posts, the General wrote to Major Tallmadge, at North
Castle, if one John Anderson arrived there, to send him forward
under an escort.
But Andre* had not changed his mind. Arnold had given him the
alternative of meeting a messenger at Dobbs Ferry, or on board the
British sloop-of-war Vulture, then lying off Teller's — now Under-
hill's — Point, just above Sing Sing. Clinton's positive orders to his
Adjutant-general were, that, he should neither go within the American
lines, assume a disguise, nor accept papers It was in accordance with
the spirit of these orders that Andre did not remain at Dobbs Ferry
to wait for a messenger, but pushed on to the Vulture. There he
would still be under the British flag, and would be nearer Arnold's
headquarters, who, he hoped, would meet him on board the ship.
This was on the evening of the 20th of September, and up to this
time it is quite plain that Arnold, in that intense and remarkable
selfishness which always governed his conduct, was determined that
all the dangers of the enterprise should fall to others, and the chief
reward to himself ; and it is equally plain that Andre understood these
dangers and was determined to avoid them. Great reward was to be
his also, if the treacherous business could be brought to a successful
end ; but so long as he remained in New York, his own cool judg
ment, and that of the commanding General, were quite sufficient to
convince him that the hope of reward, however great, could not jus
tify the enormous risk of being captured as a spy. He, no doubt, felt
that he would be quite as strong to resist temptation on board the
Vulture as in his quiet quarters in New York.
It was now three weeks since the interview had been talked about,
and there were many reasons why some conclusion should be speedily
reached. It was known to a number of persons that there was some-
1780.] THE CONFERENCE WITH ANDRE. 21
thing unusual and mysterious going on between the American Gen
eral and the enemy ; and though nobody suspected its real character
and purpose, some unlucky accident, where watchfulness had been
once aroused, might lead at any moment to a catastrophe. Military
reasons, moreover, were imperative. Washington and Rochambeau
were in conference at Hartford ; a movement might be made that
would prevent the attack upon West Point by the British, which was
an essential part of Arnold's plan ; while, if the movement of the allied
armies should be anticipated by the capture of that stronghold, all
Washington's plans would be completely defeated.
It was impossible that such obvious considerations should not greatly
influence Andre's mind, and induce him at last to yield to circum
stances which he could not control. Another day was lost, and days
now, — even hours, — were very precious ; but as possibly Arnold, or
his messenger, might have gone or sent to Dobbs Ferry, — presuming
that his confederate would stop at the point nearest to New York, —
it was necessary to let him know that John Anderson awaited him on
board the Vulture. A pretext was found for sending a letter to the
American General, which was countersigned " John Anderson, Secre
tary." In the evening of the 21st a boat with muffled oars came
alongside the ship ; but it brought, instead of Arnold, one Joshua
Hett Smith, who supposed that he was to take back to shore the Tory
Colonel, Beverley Robinson. Arnold, it was plain, meant to take no
personal risk for himself, and calculated, perhaps, how great this
temptation would be to an impetuous young man to brave what did
not seem to be a very great danger, for the sake of an interview on
which so much depended, and for which there might not be another
opportunity.
Both Captain Sutherland of the Vulture, and Colonel Robinson,
it is said, earnestly advised Andre* not to leave the ship ; but
throwing aside the caution which, apparently, had hitherto governed
him, or had been imposed upon him by superior authority, he was
deaf to their counsels. If Arnold would not come to him, he must
go to Arnold ; and it seemed possible to do so, under existing circum
stances, without any very great hazard. Concealing his uniform
under a long overcoat, he took boat with Smith, was rowed to the
west bank of the river, and met Arnold at the foot of the Long Clove
Mountain, about six miles below Stony Point.
The conference between the two conspirators, concealed in the
bushes, lasted for several hours, till Smith warned them that, as day
light was approaching, it was not safe either for them or the boat to
remain longer. Smith, in his narrative, published years afterward in
England, declares that Arnold urged him and the boatmen to return
22 ARNOLD'S TREASON. [CHAP. I.
to the Vulture with their passenger; but the boatmen — two brothers,
named Colquhoun, who, both because they were fatigued, and be
cause they thought a secret expedition in the night to a British vessel
was wrong, had at the outset refused to be engaged in it till Arnold
threatened them with arrest — testified on Smith's trial that they
did not see Arnold at all, that Smith only asked if they were willing
to go back to the ship, and they replied in the negative. The point
is not unimportant. There is not the least evidence that Andre pro
posed or wished to return ; much still remained to be arranged, and
he consented, apparently without hesitation or protest — knowing
that he was within the enemy's lines and was not, as he afterward
confessed, under the protection of a flag — to go with Arnold, to
Smith's house, about three miles distant. Arnold had provided for
this contingency by having a horse in readiness, and by requiring
Smith, a day or two before, to send his family from home.
To take advantage of treachery on the other side, is held to be jus
tifiable in war. Andre's first error was when, to gain that advantage,
he quitted the protection of his own flag ; his second step was irrep
arable and fatal in entrusting his life without reserve to his accom
plice. Perhaps he became conscious of this almost immediately after
his arrival at Smith's house, from the windows of which lie saw the
Vulture drop down the river under a heavy cannonade which Colonel
Andr«rsdi- James Livingston had ordered to be brought to bear upon
lemma. ]ier from Teller's Point. She returned, however, in the
course of the day, and, as evening approached, Andre showed great
anxiety to be taken on board. But Smith, in whose hands Arnold
had left the spy, was now too much alarmed to venture again upon
the river, and Andre had no alternative but to accept the risk of that
ride through the country which he had so steadily refused to take,
when under the guidance of Sir Henry Clinton, and free to exer
cise his own common sense. He had placed himself in a position
where he could no longer govern his own actions, but must trust to
chance.
Arnold was hardly less helpless. To Smith, who had made it his
business for a considerable time to gather news from inside the Brit
ish posts, there was nothing in the case before him to distinguish it
from others with which he was in daily familiarity. So far as he
knew, here was only an ordinary spy who had voluntarily exposed
himself to the dangers which a spy must always encounter. He was
quite willing to help him to the usual facilities of avoiding such dan
gers, but felt under no obligation to expose his own life by venturing
again to board the Vulture, now so closely watched. Arnold evidently
did not dare to exercise absolute authority, for that would quicken
1780.]
ANDRE'S DILEMMA.
the suspicions of Smith, who already knew more than could easily be
explained. He therefore left Andre to Smith's mercy ; and that he
knew what Smith would do, is evident from the fact that he provided
a pass for Andre* to go by land to White Plains, and persuaded him
to substitute for his uniform coat a plain one of Smith's, explaining to
that gentleman that it was only vanity in this tradesman, John Ander
son, that had led him to appear in the garb of a British major. It
was determined that he should return to New York by land, and the
journey was begun at night. They crossed the river at Verplanck's
*m-f
Fac-simile' of Andre's pass.
Point, and at Crompond, eight miles farther, learned from Captain
Boyd, who was in command of a patrolling party, that a band of Cow
boys, — or marauders in British pay, who infested the country above
New York — was probably in the neighborhood, and they had better
delay their journey till morning.
The road they were on led to Pine's Bridge, over the Croton River,
and at this point, in the morning, Smith left Andrd to pursue his
24 ARNOLD'S TREASON. [CHAP. I.
way alone, presuming that he would keep on by the most direct way
to White Plains. But Andrd had heard the night before from Cap
tain- Boyd that the Cow-boys were on the Tarrytown road, along the
east bank of the Hudson, and his wish was, of course, not to avoid
but to fall in with some of these people, with whom he would be safe.
After parting with Smith, therefore, he left the White Plains road
for the road to Sing Sing, and hurried forward to strike the Tarry-
town road.
He had reached to within half a mile of Tarrytown when he was
stopped by three men — John Paulding, Isaac Van Wart,
His capture. f T-\ -i TTT-IT
and David Williams — who were out in pursuit of the
Cow-boys. He hoped, he said, incautiously, that they belonged to
the " Lower Party ; " and on being assured they did, he declared that
he was a British officer, abroad on particular business, and must not
be detained. They ordered him to dismount, and guessing now that
he had committed a blunder, he exclaimed, " My God ! I must do
anything to get along," and pulled out Arnold's pass to John Ander
son. It was too late. When Paulding was asked at Smith's trial
why he did not release the prisoner when the pass was shown, he an
swered, "• Because he said before he was a British officer. Had he
pulled out General Arnold's pass first, I should have let him go."
They led him out of the road, behind some bushes, took off his boots
and stockings, and within the stockings found the papers revealing
Arnold's treason. He was asked by Williams if he would give his
horse, saddle, bridle, watch, and a hundred guineas if they would
release him. He offered not only these, but any sum of money or
quantity of dry goods they should ask for, to be sent to any place
they should name. "No, by God," said Paulding; "if you would
give us ten thousand guineas, you should not stir a step."
The nearest military post was North Castle, where Colonel Jame
son was in command, and thither the prisoner was taken.
son's biun- This officer was utterly bewildered. He was familiar with
ders. **
Arnold's handwriting, and it was impossible to doubt that it
lay before him in the pass to " John Anderson " and the documents
found in his stockings. There is no intimation anywhere that Jame
son supposed it possible that these papers might be forged. He prob
ably believed that here was some deep and wicked plot altogether
beyond his power of unravelling ; but that the commanding General
was a monstrous traitor, was an idea absolutely beyond his compre
hension. He was dazed and stunned, and utterly incapable of using
what little judgment he possessed. Naturally, he did the most unwise
thing he could do ; the papers he dispatched to Washington, by a
messenger, whose chance of missing was quite as great as of meeting
1780.] ANDRE'S DEFENCE. 25
the Commander-in-chief, then on the road somewhere between Hart
ford and West Point ; but the prisoner he sent under guard to Ar
nold, with a letter explaining the circumstances of his arrest.
Fortunately, the Major of the regiment, Benjamin Tallmadge, was
not destitute of discretion, nor incapable of facing an emergency. He
was absent from camp through the day, but when on his return in the
evening lie heard from Jameson of the arrest of the man called John
Anderson, and of the character of the papers found upon him; and
that the man had been sent to Arnold with a letter; he comprehended
at once that, if here was a revelation of some infamous act of trea
son, the most effectual step possible for the escape of the traitor and
his accomplice had been taken by the Colonel. His own judgment
was helped by a conviction of many years' standing, that Arnold was
not to be trusted, and by remembering that some days before Arnold
had ordered him to send one John Anderson, should he fall into his
hands, to headquarters. But it was useless to argue on this point
with Jameson. He was persuaded to send a messenger for the return
of Anderson ; but nothing could induce him to recall the letter to
Arnold. The guard was overtaken, and returned in the morning to
North Castle. Tallmadge saw by his gait that the prisoner was a
soldier, and he was evidently in disguise ; he was therefore sent in the
course of the day to the headquarters of the regiment at Lower
Salem, for safer custody.
Andre wrote at once to Washington, and announced his true name
and condition. "It is to vindicate my fame," he said, "that
I speak, and not to solicit security." Nevertheless, the letter tor tovvash-
T c n , . . . ... ington.
was meant as a defence and a solicitation — an anticipation
of a probable indictment and a possible verdict. As yet there had
been no accusation ; he was himself the first to put a construction
upon the facts of the case. He had been betrayed, he said, " into
the vile condition of an enemy in disguise, within your posts : " — " I
was involuntarily an impostor." Thus his standing before the court
of public opinion, for that time and for all time to come, was fixed by
himself, as an enemy in disguise — in a vile position — as an impos
tor. Was it true that this was his misfortune rather than his fault ?
— that he was the victim of treachery, betrayed in spite of himself
into a false position ?
The case is a remarkable instance of the value of the first word.
Eight days afterward, the 2d of October, Andre* was hanged Ana]vsisof
as a spy at Tappan, N. J., — hanged by the sentence of thecase-
a court-martial consisting of fourteen Major-generals and Brigadier-
generals of the American army. As he in his letter to Washington
acknowledged, he was captured when in the vile condition of an
26 ARNOLD'S TREASON. [CHAP. I.
enemy in disguise, and as an impostor; so they therefore decided that
as a spy he deserved to suffer an ignominious death. The falsehood,
that he was betrayed, against his will, into that unhappy position, had
no weight with the court. Every step he had taken was taken, as we
have shown, of his own free will. He left the Vulture with alacrity,
against the advice of his friends ; he made no effort to return to the
ship that night, but went willingly to Smith's house with Arnold to
conclude the arrangements for the nefarious business that had brought
them together, and for the successful accomplishment of which he
was to be made a brigadier-general. That circumstances intervened
which prevented his return to the ship the next day, was a contin
gency of which he took the risk when he left her ; he accepted a dis
guise ; he hid upon his person the documents which would enable his
commander to strike a terrible, if not a fatal, blow at the enemy ; all
his acts were the acts of a spy ; he assumed the responsibility they
inevitably involved against the judgment of his friends, against the
positive orders of his General, against even his own better sense of
prudence when he was free to judge with coolness.
Nevertheless, for a hundred years that first statement of his, —
that he had been betrayed into a false position, — has been accepted
by multitudes of people as true, and in spite of its sophistry and
falsehood, has spread a deceptive light over the whole transaction.
He was, indeed, the one victim of Arnold's abortive treachery to his
country ; but this was not treachery to him ; his betrayal was self-
betrayal, when in a moment of rashness and over-confidence he forgot
the laws of war, and ventured upon a step which, indeed, if success
ful, would help himself as well as his King, but if unsuccessful would
lead down to death. That he was a gentleman, a man of culture
and of many accomplishments, of an agreeable person and capti
vating manners, and that he talked much of his high sense of honor,
should not — as it did not with his judges — cover up, in the least,
the true character of the conduct that has made him famous, rather
than infamous. The sympathy that regrets the fate of one with
many admirable qualities, degenerates into mawkish sentimentality
when it remembers only those qualities and forgets the crime which
the possession of such qualities does not palliate, and ought to have
prevented. His associates and superiors in the British army had no
other plea to offer on his behalf than that lie acted under a Hag of
truce. He acknowledged this was not true, and rested on the de
fence that he was treacherously dealt with. One plea was as false
as the other. Had the great crime in which he was an accessory,
succeeded, the execrations which the world has always visited upon
his principal would, no doubt, have fallen upon him in equal measure.
1780.]
ESCAPE OF ARNOLD.
Because the greater criminal went unpunished and gained his reward,
the lesser, whom the other tempted, was first pitied and then made a
hero of.
It is a curious instance of how accident may dominate the judgment
of men, and how little real merit may have to do with fame. The
country that Andre meant to serve if lie was well rewarded, and the
country that he meant to ruin, are not yet tired of raising monuments
to his memory ; but for that other noble gentleman, Nathan Hale, ac
complished, highly educated, young, and attractive, who suffered death
in the same way, and technically for the same crime as Andre's, his
countrymen have no honors and no tears, almost no memory. Yet
one had accepted an odious task as an imperative duty to his country,
Arnold's Escape.
and purified the deed by the motive of its performance ; the other
braved the consequences of a legal crime in the hope of receiving a
great professional reward. Hale mounted the scaffold saying only
that he wished he had another life to give to his country. Andre
remembered himself as the central figure of a tragic drama, and called
upon the bystanders to observe that he met his fate like a brave
man, — that, as a more vulgar criminal would have said, he " died
irame.
The letter sent to Arnold by Jameson reached him at the Robinson
house on the morning of the 25th, while he was at breakfast Escape ot-
with two of Washington's aids. A glance at it revealed to ArnoUi
him that his treason was discovered and he must fly for his life.
Showing no emotion, and arousing no suspicion, he went quietly to
his wife in another room, explained to her in a few hurried and ter-
28 ARNOLD'S TREASON. [CHAR I.
rible words the peril in which he stood, and then left her insensible.
With the same imperturbability be mounted a horse at the door, rode
to tbe river-side, took boat, and ordered his men to pull down the
river, tying his white handkerchief to his cane and raising it as a flag
of truce. It was not till the afternoon that he was missed at head
quarters or his treason known. Jameson's messenger, with the papers
found on Andre*, had missed Washington on the road from Hartford,
and had followed him to Robinson's house. Arnold was then safe on
board the Vulture.
The most earnest efforts were made by General Clinton to save his
friend and Adjutant-general from the fate to which he had been
condemned by the most deliberate judgment, and after the most care
ful and dispassionate consideration of all the evidence in the case.
As we have already said, his friends had no other serious plea to
offer on his behalf than that he had acted under the protection of a
flag of truce. It was a mere pretext, which it was impossible to sus
tain. It would then have been weakness, not mercy, to permit an
act to go unpunished which, both by the laws of war and by act of
Congress, was a capital crime — a crime, in this case, so monstrous,
that had it succeeded, it would have cost thousands of lives, and per
haps the liberty of a whole people.
Clinton could have saved Andre* — as Washington let him know
— by the surrender of Arnold ; and it is to the honor of the British
General that he would not betray his plighted faith to a traitor even
to save his friend. The penalty of the crime fell upon the accom
plice ; the chief criminal was paid his price in a commission as Brig
adier-general, and six thousand three hundred and fifteen pounds
sterling in money. Pensions of five hundred pounds a year to Mrs.
Arnold, and of a hundred pounds a year to each of her children,
were also awarded when Arnold took his family to England. His
three sons by his first wife — the eldest being only twelve years of
age, and the youngest eight years at the time of their father's treason
— were given commissions as lieutenants of cavalry in his American
Legion, and received half-pay as retired officers to the end of their
lives. To all the sons by the second wife were given, besides their
pensions, military education and commissions in the British army.1
England was not ungrateful.
Immediate steps were taken by Washington for the capture of
Arnold, nor were they ever pretermitted so long as he remained in
the country. Even before Andre" was executed — and partly with
the hope that the less guilty of the conspirators might be saved by
the capture of the chief — a hazardous enterprise was set on foot for
1 See Life of Benedict Arnold, by Isaac N. Arnold (1880).
1880.] SERGEANT CHAMPE'S ATTEMPT TO CAPTURE ARNOLD. '29
this purpose. Sergeant-major John Champe, a young and deserving
soldier belonging to Lee's legion, deserted, to the astonishment of
all his comrades. He was pursued within the hour, on the road to
Elizabethtown Point, and only escaped, when nearly overtaken, by
abandoning his horse, rushing into the sea, and swimming off to a
British vessel in the bay. The desertion was only feigned, however,
and made at Lee's request at the suggestion of Washington. On the
Sergeant's arrival in New York he was taken to Arnold, and enrolled
in a corps the traitor was already raising, of loyal Americans. After
much difficulty and delay, a well-contrived plan was arranged to seize
the General in a garden attached to his lodgings, where he was known
to walk late at night, and to take him across the river to Hoboken,
where a company of dragoons was to be in waiting to receive the
prisoner. The arrangements were all carefully laid, and would have
been successful probably, had it not happened that on the day of the
evening appointed, Arnold changed his lodgings, and the corps to
which Champe belonged was ordered on board ship. It was a year
and a half before the Sergeant could find an opportunity to rejoin his
old corps — then in South Carolina — where he was received with great
coldness and distrust by his old comrades till the true explanation of
his absence was made known by Major Lee, and his devotion and
courage recognized by the Commander-in-chief.
CHAPTER II.
THE SOUTHERN CAMPAIGN.
THE EFFECTS OF ARNOLD'S TREASON. — BUFORD DEFEATED ON THE WAXHAW. —
COUNVVALLIS MISCALCULATES HIS TASK ACTIONS AT ROCKY MOUNT AND HANG
ING HOCK. — PARTISAN WARFARE. — GATES ASSUMES COMMAND IN THE SOUTH. —
THE MILITARY SITUATION. — BATTLE OF CAMDEX. — SKIRMISHES. — BATTLE OF
KING'S MOUNTAIN. — GREENE SUPERSEDES GATES. — His PLAN OF CAMPAIGN. —
BATTLE OF COWPENS. — CONDITION OF GREENE'S ARMY. — His HETREAT. — KK-
CEIVES REINFORCEMENTS. — BATTLE OF GUILFORD COURT-HOUSE. — CORNWALLIS
RETREATS TO WILMINGTON.
"WHOM can we trust now?" was Washington's despairing excla
mation to Lafayette and General Knox, when he received
Arnold's the papers disclosing Arnold's treason. There was not dur
ing the war a gloomier moment. No material harm, indeed,
came of that monstrous crime, for it was happily discovered in sea
son to prevent it.; but the moral effect of such treachery, both in
the army and upon the people, might lead to that despair which is the
first step to ruin. Then the news of Arnold's crime followed close
upon the news of the utter defeat of Gates by Cornwallis in South
Carolina. It might well be, feared that the plan of the Ministry in
England, — to reduce each State in detail, while all were rendered
incapable of a mutual defence, — would succeed, if treason on the
one hand, and the lack of military ability on the other, should come-
to the help of the British General.
The capture of Charleston was not merely the loss of a seaport; it
was the loss of the army on which the State relied for its
defeat at defence, and the opening of a gate through which a hostile
Waxhaw. rnl' .
army was to enter. 1 here were HOIK; to oppose its imme
diate progress. Col. Abraham Buford, who was sent, with about
four hundred Virginia troops, to the relief of Charleston — for which
he was too late — was followed on his return by a force of about
three hundred cavalry and mounted infantry, under command of
Lieutenant-colonel Banastre Tarleton. By a forced march of two
days, he overtook the Virginians on the banks of the Waxhaw. A
flag of truce, sent on in advance, demanded a surrender, which was
1780.] CORNWALLIS MISCALCULATES HIS TASK. 31
refused. Giving Buford no time to prepare for an attack, the British
dragoons immediately fell upon the Americans with irresistible im
petuosity. Some few attempted to defend their lives ; some threw
away their anus and begged for mercy ; others fled before a charge
which no time was given them to meet. Buford escaped with about
one fourth of his men ; more than one third of the whole force were
killed on the spot, without regard to their prayers for quarter; about
fifty were taken away as prisoners, and the rest were left upon the
ground so severely wounded that they could not be moved. It was
not a battle, but a massacre of men who had ceased, or had not at
tempted, to fight, — of men who had thrown away their arms and
begged that their lives might be spared. From that moment, Tarle-
ton was as much feared for his cruelty as he soon became famous for
the celerity of his movements ; and the character of the warfare, on
both sides, for many months to come, was determined by the slaugh
ter on the Waxhaw.
Georgia was considered as already permanently restored to the
Crown. By concentrating troops at Augusta, Ninety-Six, Cornwallis-s
and Camden, Lord Cornwallis hoped to hold South Carolina error
in subjection, and bring to an end the desperate resistance of her re
bellious people, when they should be cut off from all possibility of
help, by the conquest of North Carolina. The distribution of troops
through the summer was made with reference to a movement north
ward, as well as for holding the country assumed to be already sub
dued. But Cornwallis had yet to learn by protracted and painful
experience that rebellion was not suppressed by holding a few strong
posts, and that, till rebellion was suppressed, the holding of those
posts was of small moment. The partisan was almost always certain
to be heard of where he was least expected and was most unwelcome,
and it was quite as certain that when he was looked for he was not
to be found. The nearer Cornwallis approached to North Carolina,
the wider was the unconquered country he left behind him ; and the
garrisons of isolated posts, if they were so fortunate as to be unmo
lested, or were able to maintain their ground, enforced submission
only so far as their guns could carry.
These posts, moreover, wer£ perpetually harassed Sumter, in con
junction with Major Davie, another of the most active par- Ro(.kv
tisans, determined in July to carry two of them, — Rocky H,°ngingnd
Mount and Hanging Rock, on opposite sides of the Ca- llook'
tawba, and both within thirty miles of Camden. Though neither
place was taken, much damage was inflicted upon the enemy. Davie,
as he approached Hanging Rock, fell in with a portion of the garri
son, out upon a foraging expedition, killed almost the whole of them,
82 THE SOUTHERN CAMPAIGN. [CHAP. II.
and brought off sixty horses and a hundred muskets and rifles, —
booty of no small value to men who needed always, from their
method of warfare, to be well mounted, with whom arms were so
scarce that saws were made into swords, and whose fire-arms were
only those which each man brought from his own home. At Rocky
Mount, Sumter made three successive assaults, and his want of suc
cess in carrying the place was due rather to the demoralization of his
own militia, — who scattered to rifle that portion of the hostile camp
they had carried, — than to the obstinate defence by the British.
But the activity shown by movements of this character was of
Partisan much more moment in their influence upon the people than
the capture of a post, or the cutting off of a detachment. The
timid were strengthened, the lukewarm encouraged, the brave made
more determined, and the Tories led to doubt if their choice of sides
had been wise. One Lieutenant-colonel Lisle, in command of a bat
talion of loyalist militia — which had been enrolled, after the fall of
Signature of Sumter.
Charleston, in the districts on the Ennoree and Tiger rivers -
marched off when his men were thoroughly armed and equipped, and
put them under the rebel Colonel Neale, who led them to reenforce
Sumter. It was "an instance of treachery," Tarleton said, "which
ruined all confidence between the regulars and the militia." Nor
was it the only instance of "• treachery " of this kind. Major Mc-
Arthur, in command at Camden, sent away a hundred of his men to
go into hospital under escort of a body of supposed loyalists; when far
enough from camp to do so with impunity, they secured the sick and
their own officers as prisoners, and marched them off into North Caro
lina. The bitterness of the warfare between the loyalists and the
rebels was relieved by those occasional evidences that patriotism was
a deeper feeling than the assumed allegiance to the King.
Cornwallis was not long in learning that even with his army of
nearly seven thousand men, most of them trained soldiers, the contest
must be a hard, if not a hopeless one, in such perfectly unscientific
warfare with men fighting for their homes ; — with bodies of troops
1780.]
PARTISAN WARFARE.
33
which could dissolve in a night into individual, quiet husbandmen, or,
if holding together, would escape all search by hiding in forests and
swamps; who would appear in companies of fifty or a thousand, as
the exigency of the moment required, when least expected and least
prepared for ; whose vigilance was sure to observe when a post was
weakest, when a foraging party was off its guard and could be cut to
pieces, or when a detachment
could be found beyond the reach
of succor. The pursuit of such
leaders as Sumter, Marion,
Davie, Pickens, and Davidson
was almost hopeless ; to bring
them to fight was gen-
V*.
Marion in Camp.
erally impossible, except on their own terms, and in positions of their
own choosing.1 Probably, the British General began already to feel
as he wrote a few months later to General Phillips, in Virginia —
" I am quite tired of marching about the country in quest of adven
tures." He knew, at any rate, that the devoted patriotism of the
1 Lieutenant-colonel Lee relates in his Memoirs that when sent by General Greene to
make a junction with Marion, — who was sometimes in North Carolina, sometimes in
South Carolina, sometimes concealed in the swamps of the Pedee, sometimes in those of
the Black River, but nobody ever knew exactly where, — he only found that active parti
san by accidentally falling in with a small detachment of his men ; and even they were
compelled to search some hours before they reached the camp of their General, hidden in
the swamps of the Pedee.
34
THE SOUTHERN CAMPAIGN.
[CllAP. II.
people could never be overcome so long as they were animated by the
hope that aid could reach them from the North, and there was any
thing left for them to fight for.
When, therefore, it was known that the Baron de Kalb was on the
march southward with the Maryland and Delaware troops
Gates takes •IT 11 i i • • i i i t •
command in of the hue, and that these were to be iomed by bodies of
the South. . . . . .
mihtiatrom Virginia and North Carolina, under btevens and
Caswell, Cornwallis determined to intercept their progress. At Hills-
borough, N. C., General Gates, who had been appointed by Con
gress to conduct the campaign, overtook and superseded De Kalb.
Gates took the shortest route to meet the enemy, unfortunately
through a sterile and impoverished country, where forage was scarce,
and where his men were compelled to rely largely upon green maize
and unripe fruit for their subsistence. Unfortunately, also, in his
haste to get forward, he neglected, or refused, to take measures for
rilling up the cavalry regiments of Colonels Washington and White —
the arm of the service which, if not more important than any other,
was absolutely indispensable
in the mode of warfare made
necessary by the character of
the country and of the inhab
itants. By
his fi r s t
m i s t a k e
G a t e s d i-
m in i shed
his force by sickness, and led into action, when the time came, a
body of men enfeebled from want of sufficient food ; by the second,
he was compelled to accept defeat when efficient cavalry might have
turned disaster into success.
De Kalb led his line forward toward Camden by a more circuitous
The military route, but through a fertile region, and his men, therefore,
situation. -\vere in a better condition to face the enemy. Lord Uaw-
clon, who was in command at Camden, went out to meet Gates about
fifteen miles from the town. The American army numbered about
three thousand men, mainly raw recruits, ill-clothed, ill-fed, and un
disciplined. The British force, though fewer in numbers, were in
good condition, and almost all veteran troops. Under such circum
stances, it would have been wiser on the part of the American Gen
eral to avoid the enemy ; even had the disparity in effective force not
existed, there was too much depending upon the issue of a general
battle to justify a resort to it, if it could be avoided, unless the result
could be anticipated with almost absolute certainty. Gates does not
Signature of Ma
1780.] GATES AND CORNWALLIS. 35
seem, till it was too late to recede, to have admitted a doubt of a fa
vorable result. He sent Marion, who had joined him, into South Caro
lina on a reconnoissance, ordering him, it is said, to destroy all the
bridges and boats and scows in his way, that the British might have
no means of escape in their coming flight to Charleston.1
The reasons which should have led the American commander to
avoid a general battle were precisely the reasons which led Corn-
wallis to seek it. The enthusiasm of rebellion, encouraged by the
arrival of an army from the North, was already at its height in both
the Carolinas. The difficulties in his way would not be greatly in
creased by a reverse, and a reverse, by no means irreparable, was
all that could happen to him. But if, on the other hand, he could
achieve a victory, which, with his superiority in artillery, in cavalry,
and in the military character of his army, he might reasonably
expect, that victory would be, not merely a reverse, but a terrible
disaster to the enemy ; it would strike with paralysis the brave and
devoted people who would face poverty, starvation, and death so long
as hope was left them, and would stir their opponents to fresh enthu
siasm, courage, and hostility. For four days the armies lay encamped
on the opposite banks of Lynch's Creek, each waiting for the other
to move. During this time Gates, in his over-confidence of his
strength, detached four hundred men from his little army to inter
cept a convoy at a ferry on the Wateree, near Camden. Then mov
ing on the right of Rawdon, that General fell back and was followed
by Gates with the purpose of bringing him to battle. Had Gates
instead moved with more celerity up the Creek by a forced march,
he could, Tarleton asserts in his " Memoirs," have pushed Lord Raw-
don's flank, reached Camden before him, and captured that impor
tant magazine of British stores.
On the 18th of August, Cornwallis arrived and took command of
the army. He was as anxious as Gates to fight, and with far ^Me of
better reason. On the night of the 15th, both armies moved, Camden-
each intending to surprise the other. The American vanguard was
led by Colonel Armand, a brave French officer, whose command of
less than a hundred men, most of them deserters, broke and fled at
the first onslaught, and were pursued by the enemy. Some confusion
followed in the front division ; but Colonel Potterfield and Major
Armstrong, with the Virginia and North Carolina militia, came up
from both flanks and checked the advance. Both armies now waited
for daylight.
Gates immediately called a council of war. He knew from pris
oners that the army in front was commanded by Cornwallis in person,
1 Simms's Life of Marion.
36 THE SOUTHERN CAMPAIGN. [CIIAI-. II.
and lie had learned the day before, for the first time, from the re
turns of his Generals, that his whole force was only about three
thousand men. Less than half of these were regulars. Perhaps
now he felt the need of advice, and doubted the correctness of his
own judgment. "Has the General given you orders to retreat the
army ? '* — asked the Baron de Kalb, when called to the council by
the Adjutant-general. But the council, when convened, had no
advice to give. General Stevens, of the Virginia militia, said it was
too late to retreat. This was acquiesced in only by silence. " Then
we must fight," replied Gates. " Gentlemen, please to take your
posts."
In the line of battle that was soon formed, Cornwallis carefully
observed the disposition of the opposite army, and took advantage of
it. To the untried militia he opposed his best troops, under his best
officer, Colonel Webster. These opened the battle with a spirited
charge; before which the Virginia militia broke, and after firing a
single shot, threw away their arms and fled. The contagion of a
senseless panic seized upon the North Carolina militia, and they also
scattered in every direction. The Generals of these two brigades,
Stevens and Caswell, assisted by Gates, made vain efforts to reas
sure and rally them ; but the whole left wing fled almost without a
blow. On the right the Continentals under De Kalb and Gist, and a
North Carolina regiment under Dixon, held their ground with great
firmness and coolness and pushed the enemy before them, De Kalb, at
one point, breaking their line by a furious charge with the bayonet.
But the whole American line was forced to give way, when Web
ster, released by the easy and rapid rout of the left wing, enabled
Cornwallis to concentrate his whole force on the right. More than
a third of the Continentals were killed and wounded, and the rest
sought safety in the woods and swamps. De Kalb, at the head of
his Mary landers, fell under eleven wounds, was stripped of his cloth
ing by the soldiers, and was rescued from further indignity by the
fortunate appearance of Cornwallis. He died three days afterward.
Gates's army, as an organized force, was annihilated. The militia
— as their custom often was in the southern campaigns when they
deemed their services no longer needed, or when they became irksome
for any reason — generally dispersed to their homes. The General
himself, before the day was over, was sixty miles from the field of
battle ; for several following days scattered remnants of his command
reached Charlotte and other towns, and these he proceeded to gather
together as a nucleus for a new army, making his headquarters at
Hillsborough, one, hundred and eighty miles from the field of his
overwhelming defeat.
1780.]
SKIRMISHP:S.
Two days after that defeat, another, though smaller misfortune,
befell the American arms. Suinter, to whom Gates had Sumter<ur.
sent a reenforcement to enable him to intercept a British prised
convoy from Charleston, had succeeded in that enterprise, but was
taken off his guard by Tarleton. The baggage train Sumter had cap-
De Kalb wounded.
tured was recovered, and so complete was the dispersion of his force
of eight hundred men, that only three hundred could be mustered
when the fight was over.
Early in September, Cornwallis was again in motion, confident that
North Carolina would now be an easy conquest before Con- Skh.mjsh at
gress could send another army to dispute his progress. The x
main body advanced from the Waxhaw Settlement toward Charlotte,
Tarleton moving through the country on the left, and Lieutenant-
colonel Ferguson keeping still nearer to the frontier with a corps of
THE SOUTHERN CAMPAIGN. [CHAP. II.
provincial troops. The partisan leaders, notwithstanding the late
reverses, had lost none of their spirit and activity ; before Cornwallis
moved, Colonel Davie had surprised a party of loyalists and of the
British Legion at a place called Wahab's plantation, had put them to
flight, and captured about a hundred horses, with their equipments,
and a hundred and twenty stands of arms.
It was Tarleton's and Ferguson's business to find and disperse these
troublesome parties of patriots, while Ferguson was also to add to his
own numbers by reassuring and rallying the loyalists. At Gilbert-
town he learned that a force of militia in the southern part of the
State, under Colonel Clarke, had attacked Augusta, Georgia, where
Lieutenant-colonel Browne was in command ; that lie and the garri
son had been reduced to extremity, and the place was on the point of
being taken, when Clarke was compelled to withdraw by the appear
ance of a body of loyalists. Ferguson received orders from Corn
wallis to intercept Clarke on his retreat. He had hardly left Gilbert-
town, in obedience to this order, when a large body of riflemen from
Kentucky and North Carolina arrived, on their way to Augusta to
the assistance of Clarke. As Ferguson had gone in pursuit of Clarke,
so fifteen hundred of these hardy mountaineers, each armed with his
own rifle, each mounted upon his own horse, started in pursuit of
Ferguson.
They overtook him on the 8th of October, at King's Mountain, near
the boundary-line between North and South Carolina, and
flattie of •'
Kind's west of the Catawba River, — a hill of moderate elevation
Mountain.
covered with wood. Ferguson had encamped on the sum
mit. The Americans approached in three divisions, led respectively
by Colonels Cleveland, Shelby, and Campbell, ascending the hill at
different points. Cleveland first reached the summit, and his moun
tain riflemen first opened fire from behind the trees. Ferguson
charged upon them furiously with the bayonet and pushed them down
the hill. Then from another quarter came Shelby, who poured volley
after volley into Ferguson's flank or rear. Another bayonet charge
met this second assault, and Shelby fell back. Campbell gained the
top of the hill as Shelby's men retired, and for a third time Ferguson
was compelled to meet and to repulse a fresh assailant. Even when
the three columns were united and advanced upon him in one body,
he held his ground against superior numbers, with indomitable cour
age. The fight lasted for almost an hour, and was only brought to
an end by the death of Ferguson. His officers and men surrendered
when no longer inspirited by his brave words and brave example.
The loss of the British was three hundred killed and wounded ; eight
hundred prisoners were taken, and double that number of stands of
1780.]
GREENE SUPERSEDES GATES.
39
arms, intended for the loyalists, who would, it was hoped, join the
corps as it advanced through the country. The force was chiefly
loyal militia, and some of the most obnoxious of them were hanged
by their captors — an indefensible and barbarous retaliation ; but the
example had been set them by Cornwallis, who had, not long before,
issued a proclama- s-
tion to the rebel
lious people, com
manding them to
return to their al
legiance, and, for
the encouragement
of the rest, had put
to death some of
those whose con
duct was the most
determined, and
whose influence
was most to be
dreaded.
B y Ferguson's
defeat, the effec
tive fighting force
under Cornwallis
was reduced one
fourth, and his far
ther advance into
North Carolina
checked for the
present. While
waiting for a ree'n-
f orce m e n t u n d e r
General Leslie — who had left New York for the South — the army
was not idle. Its most energetic officers were occupied in attempts
to meet, under favorable circumstances, with Sumter or Marion, or
some other of the partisan leaders who, from the Black River to the
Broad, now here now there, coming down from the mountains, or
up from the swamps, kept up perpetual hostilities against the enemy,
foreign and domestic, and fanned into perpetual flame the sacred fires
of rebellion. Sumter, in an encounter with Tarleton at Blackstock
Hill on the Tiger River — of whose coming Sumter was gkjrmishat
warned by a country-woman, who watched the approach of ]
the enemy from the edge of a wood, and then hastened through a by-
A Woman Reconnoitering.
40 THE SOUTHERN CAMPAIGN. [CiiAi-. II.
way to Sumter's camp with the information — was grievously wound
ed, and his men, deprived of their favorite commander, dispersed for
a time to their homes. And this was almost the sole advantage that
Cornwallis gained during the autumn before Greene arrived to take
command of the remnant of the army which Gates for three months
had been diligently engaged in recruiting and reorganizing.
Greene arrived at Charlotte, North Carolina, on the 2d of Decem
ber. " I think I am giving you a general,'' Washington said
Greene c /~< i i i i
supersedes to n member ot Congress ; " but what can a general do
without men, without arms, without clothing, without stores,
without provisions ? " A general, however, was all that could be
spared, at that moment, to strengthen the southern army ; even as it
was, Congress wanted means to feed and clothe it, and Greene reported
that it " may literally be said to be naked." Hut a good general was
worth many battalions.
Greene's plan of a campaign was the reverse of that which Gates
had acted upon. It was, to avoid as long as possible any general
battle, but to hinder the enemy at every step of his progress ; to annoy,
harass, perplex, disgust, and exasperate him ; to defeat him in detail,
and to convince him, at length, of the hopelessness of his labor.
On this plan he acted at once. The army moved into South Caro
lina in two bodies, the larger under the personal direction
of the General commanding, and the other under General
Morgan. Morgan entered upon the country between the Catawba
and Black rivers, as far as the Pacolet. Greene moved down the
Pedee till he was about seventy miles east of Cornwallis at Winns-
borough. General Leslie had arrived at Charleston, and was ordered
to march at once, with a thousand men, to Camden ; but when Corn
wallis was apprised of Greene's movement, and that the enemy was
within from fifty to seventy miles on both his flanks, his attention was
necessarily turned to this new condition of affairs, and he again aban
doned his purpose of advancing immediately into North Carolina.
Tarleton was at once detached in pursuit of Morgan, who, it was
feared, threatened the whole line of posts in the rear of the British
army, including Ninety-Six and Augusta. About the same time,
Cornwallis moved from Winnsborough to intercept Morgan, in case
he should retreat before Tarleton, and attempt to cross Broad River
to rejoin Greene. Cornwallis paused, however, after marching a few
miles, to wait for Leslie, whom he ordered to join him wyith all pos
sible haste ; for it suddenly occurred to him that, while he was in
pursuit of Morgan, Greene might take advantage of that movement
to intercept Leslie. The wisdom of the disposition of his forces by
the American General was already apparent.
1781.]
BATTLE OF COWPENS.
Tarleton was on the banks of the Pacolet on the 15th (January,
1781). Morgan, thoroughly informed of the movements of Battieof
both his antagonists, fell back to a point about six miles (owPens-
from Broad River, called the Cowpens, on the farm of a grazier,
named Hannah. Here he determined to abide the issue of battle.
It was a decision of exceeding boldness, but was not a rash one ; for
to attempt to cross the river while Tarleton was in hot pursuit, —
and Tarleton was never so much to be dreaded as when his foe was in
flight before him, or was taken
by surprise, — with Cornwallis
possibly on the other side to
dispute the passage, would be
so hazardous an undertaking
that the militia would disperse,
and leave the regular troops to
almost certain destruction. But
here Morgan could choose his
own ground; he had only one
antagonist to contend with, and
that not so much his superior
in numbers and in arms as to
make the contest hopelessly
unequal ; and there was just
enough of the desperate in the
situation to arouse his men to
the highest point of enthusiasm,
if bravely led. He determined,
therefore, to fight ; and it was
the determination, not only of a brave man, but of an able soldier.
The ground chosen by Morgan was a field of open woods, in which
cavalry could manoeuvre easily, extending in length about five hun
dred yards. From the front, the ground ascended with a gradual
slope for three hundred yards to the highest point in the field ; then
gently falling off, like a rolling prairie, for another hundred yards,
rose again to a second elevation. On the first eminence were posted
about four hundred men, under Lieutenant-colonel Howard, — his
own battalion of nearly three hundred Maryland regulars, two com
panies of Virginia militia, but composed of veterans, and two of
Georgia riflemen. This was the main body, on which Morgan chiefly
relied to bear the brunt of the battle, from its numbers, discipline,
and position. Directly in its front, at a distance of a hundred and
fifty yards, was the first line, composed of Colonel Pickens's militia
of nearly three hundred men, with skirmishers thrown out in front.
Gen. Daniel Morgan.
42 TUP: SOUTHERN CAMPAIGN. [CHAP. n.
Colonel Washington's famous cavalry, and a corps of mounted in
fantry, numbering altogether a hundred and twenty men, were placed
as a reserve on the second eminence ; and behind them were picketed
the horses of the militia, ready for whatever use the issue should de
termine — whether pursuit or flight. On the field were about eight
hundred and fifty men, placed with great military skill and in the
most imposing order ; when Tarleton, in the early morning, came in
sitjht of them, he reckoned that about two thousand men confronted
O
him.
Morgan rode along his lines in the hush of expectation of the com
ing struggle, encouraging each separate corps with such stirring words
as would best arouse their local pride and personal courage. The
skirmishers he told to scatter and fight from tree to tree, and check
the enemy's advance by their good marksmanship. Pickens's first
line of militia he exhorted to stand firm, and when the British were
within fifty yards, to give them twice a cool and well-directed fire,
and then fall back in good order to the left of the main body ;
a panic, he told them, would insure their destruction ; if they
fought with manly courage, as they had often done before, victory
was sure to follow. To the veterans under Howard he explained his
plan of battle, prepared them for the falling back of the militia upon
their line, directed them to stand firm and fire low, and, if they were
forced to retire, to move leisurely and in order to the second emi
nence, to be strengthened by the caA*alry.
The enemy came on, — a force of a thousand men, most of them
of the best troops in the British army, — veteran soldiers, accustomed
to victory, and strengthened by two pieces of artillery. When they
had dislodged the skirmishers from behind their trees, they rushed
with a shout upon Pickens's militia, who received them with a deadly
fire, repulsed Tarleton's dragoons, emptying fifteen of their saddles,
and only yielded their ground at the point of the bayonet and be
fore the fire of the two pieces of artillery on their flanks. When
their line was once broken, some of them, as the inveterate habit of
the undisciplined militia was, fled for safety to their horses, in the
extreme rear, each to take care of himself ; but most of them fell
back without panic upon Howard's left.
The enemy advanced now upon the second line with a vigorous
charge, which was met so steadily that Tarleton ordered up his re
serve. With this reinforcement, the charge was renewed, falling
most heavily upon Howard's right flank. To meet the danger of this
flank attack, the order to change front was given to the right com
pany, but was misunderstood ; the company, instead of wheeling to the
right to repel a flank movement, faced about and marched toward the
1781.] BATTLE OF COWPENS. 43
rear. The whole line, supposing that to be the order, followed their
example. The movement was made, however, with the precision and
coolness of men upon parade. " Men were not beaten, who retreated
in that order," Howard said to Morgan, who rode up rapidly from
the left where he had re-formed Pickens's militia and ordered an ad
vance. He saw at a glance that Howard was right, and that the
misunderstanding of the order could be turned into an advantage.
Pickens's men had moved forward again and opened fire on the
British right. Washington with his horse charged upon that wing
at the same moment, with such impetuosity that he broke through
their lines, then wheeled, and charged again upon their rear, and
scattered them to the right and left. The pursuit of the flying cav
alry had brought him in the rear of the advancing British left,
which, supposing Howard to be in retreat, was about to fall upon
him, and end the battle, as Tarleton thought, by pushing the Amer
icans into a disastrous flight. But as Washington reached the British
rear he sent word to Morgan, "' They are coming on like a mob ; give
them a fire, and I will charge on them." At the instant Morgan
ordered Howard's line to halt and wheel, shouting, " Face about boys !
give them one fire, and the victory is ours ! " The order was promptly
obeyed ; the enemy, within thirty or forty yards, recoiled before the
steady fire with which they were met, and the bayonet charge which
followed it up. Washington fell upon their rear, and the rout was
utter. Some threw away their arms and fled ; others threw them
down and, kneeling, prayed for quarter. " Tarleton's quarter ! " rang
along the line, and it was with much difficulty that the officers with
held the men, who recalled Tarleton's bloody fields, from turning the
victory into a massacre.
In the excitement of pursuit, Washington at one time, had ad
vanced some distance ahead of his troops, when he was
charged upon by three British officers. Sergeant-major
Perry came up just in time to parry the blow and disable
the sword-arm of one of them as he swung his sabre to cut down
Washington ; another on the other side Avas pressing him hard, when
a young trumpeter named Collins, too small to wield a sword, brought
the assailant clown with a pistol-shot; the sword-thrust of a third,
supposed to be Tarleton, was parried by Washington himself ; but
he received a pistol-shot in the knee from the officer as he retired
from the contest.
Tarleton calls the result of the battle a "decisive rout." When he
fled precipitately with a handful of men, he left behind him, out of his
whole force of a thousand men, in the hands of the enemy, six
hundred prisoners, one hundred dead upon the field, his two guns,
44
THE SOUTHERN CAMPAIGN.
[CHAP. II.
his colors, eight hundred muskets, a hundred dragoon horses, and
a large part of his baggage-train. It is not the least remarkable
thing in this remarkable battle, that the casualties on the side of
the Americans were only twelve killed and sixty wounded.
It is a striking evidence of the forlorn condition of the American
arms at the beginning of the last year of the war, that little could
be done to take advantage of so brilliant a victory- It
Condition of . . f~ 11.
Greene's had cost CornwalJis a fourth of his army, and Parleton
complains that his chief lost, by hesitation and delay, the
opportunity to repair that misfortune. But Greene was in no con
dition to avail himself of Morgan's achievement. His army was
destitute of almost everything ; many of his men had absolutely no
v - ^ft^*Gj5**s&*
Encounter between Tarleton and Colonel Washington.
clothing except a strip of cloth around the loins, — and this in the
winter, though it was the winter of the Carolinas. His force was
largely militia, who came and went as their own inclination or inter
est dictated, and could not be relied upon for any continuous service.
Any immediate aid in men or supplies from the North was out of
the question, for Brigadier-general Arnold had sailed from New
York for the invasion of Virginia, in the latter part of December,
with sixteen hundred men. How the developments of the next few
months were to make this movement of the great traitor the first of a
series of events which should bring about the final catastrophe, was
not then foreseen. But it was apparent enough that to save the
1781.] GREENE'S RETREAT. 45
more Southern States, should Virginia be lost, would be hopeless ;
to save Virginia, therefore, was now the primary object of the Com
mander-in-chief. Greene must be left to take care of himself.
Greene's plan of defence was still as imperative as ever — to avoid
a general battle, to lead the enemy into a protracted pursuit, and to
harass his inarch. Morgan retreated with great deliberation and
coolness before Cornwallis, to rejoin the main army. Greene fell
back toward Salisbury, where he proposed that several bodies of
militia should unite with him. It was desirable to keep Cornwallis
on the west side of the Catawba as long as possible ; but he crossed
at McGowan's Ford, where General Davidson, with three
hundred North Carolina militia, was posted to dispute the MC<JOWUI»'S
passage. The river at this point was five hundred yards in
width, the current rapid and waist-deep ; but a British detachment,
under Lieutenant-colonel Hall, crossed in the darkness on the 1st of
February, far enough below the usual ford to be out of the reach of
Davidson's fire till they were safely over. In the fight that followed,
both the commanders were killed.
The road to Salisbury was now open to Cornwallis, and pursuit
was renewed. Greene pushed on to Guilford, putting the (!m>Ilt.-s re_
Yadkin between him and the enemy, and there waited till trcat-
Cornwallis crossed at the upper fords. \ The next river was the Dan,
then swollen with freshets, and, Cornwallis hoped, impassable. But
Greene still eluded him, having provided boats for such an emergency,
and passed over into Halifax County, Virginia. Here he had leisure
to rest his wearied troops, and to wait for reinforcements of militia ;
for Cornwallis, baffled and vexed with his fruitless efforts to overtake
him, retired to Hillsborough and contented himself for the present
with issuing a proclamation, announcing that as he had driven the
enemy out of the State, the loyal people of North Carolina might
now safely return to their allegiance.
There were more Tories than Whigs in North Carolina, and Greene
was confronted with a new danger. Should he not return to the State,
the royal rule might be completely restored by the encouragement
given to the loyalists by his apparent discomfiture, and by the sub
mission of the patriots who would believe themselves abandoned.
The loss of North Carolina was the loss also of South Carolina and
Georgia. The time had come, therefore, for a change of policy, and
to risk a temporary defeat by a general battle. Recrossing the Dan,
he moved back upon Guilford, but baffling and eluding Cornwallis —
who again started in pursuit — as before, till he was confident enough
in his own strength, and in a field of his own choosing, to try the
issue of a fight.
46 THE SOUTHERN CAMPAIGN. [CHAP. II.
The American army bad been reenforced with Virginia and Caro
lina militia to a total of forty-three hundred men ; but of
The Amer- , i • <• 1/1 •. i ~\
icansreen- this force nearly three quarters were raw recruits. Corn-
wallis commanded twenty-four hundred veteran troops, thor
oughly equipped and disciplined, used to fighting, and accustomed to
success. General Morgan, whom ill-health had compelled to retire,
wrote to General Greene in February : " I expect Lord Cornwallis
will push you until you are obliged to fight him You '11 have,
from what I see, a great number of militia. If they fight, you '11
beat Cornwallis ; if not, he '11 beat you, and perhaps cut your regu
lars to pieces.''
On the 15th of March, Greene, choosing his ground near Guilt'ord
Battle of Court-house, and forming his line of battle, awaited the en-
court°rd emy. His army was deployed in three lines, — the first,
made up of North Carolina militia, under Generals Butler
and Eaton ; the second, of Virginia militia, under Stevens and Law-
son ; the third, entirely of regulars. The lines were about three
hundred yards apart, and the flanks of the militia were supported by
Washington's cavalry, the legion of Lee, and Campbell's riflemen.
Gen. Isaac Huger commanded the Virginia brigade on the right
wing, Col. Otho Williams that from Maryland, on the left. In front,
the ground was open, bordered by trees and fences, behind which the
first line was sheltered ; thence there was a gradual ascent of thickly-
wooded land for about half a mile to Guilford Court-house. It was
a well-chosen battle-field ; every advantage of ground was made avail
able ; the men, who were well commanded, were placed with great
skill, and they were sufficient in numbers ; but Greene's fatal weak
ness was the want of tried soldiers.
When the British army advanced in a steady, unbroken line, the
North Carolina militia — nearly equal in numbers — delivered a scat
tering fire from their secure position behind the trees and fences, and
then fled precipitately, throwing away their arms and knapsacks.
Some sought safety in the thick woods behind Campbell's riflemen ;
the rest tumbled back upon the second line, which received them qui
etly, and, opening its ranks, passed them to the rear. This second line
of Virginia militia bravely held their ground till the British charged
with the bayonet, when they also broke and took refuge in the, woods
or behind the third line of regulars. The brunt of the battle now fell
upon this portion of Greene's force, numbering only, with the cav
alry, between sixteen and seventeen hundred men, to Coruwallis's
twenty-four hundred.
Lieutenant-colonel Webster, on the British left, pushed on over
the ground from which he had driven the Virginia militia, and struck
1781.]
BATTLE OF GUILFORD COURT-HOUSE.
the First Regiment of Maryland Continentals, under Colonel Gunby.
The Mary landers met the attack with a steady and destructive fire,
before which Webster recoiled, and then, charging with the bayonet,
compelled him to retreat across a ravine to a hill on the other side,
where he waited for assistance. Lieutenant-colonel Stuart, with the
first battalion of the Guards,
followed by other corps, hur
ried forward at Webster's dis
comfiture, and attacked the Sec
ond Maryland Regiment, on the
left of the First, which at that
moment was hidden from sight
in the woods. The Second Regi
ment fled, pursued by Stuart ;
but Lieutenant-colonel Howard,
Gunby being dismounted,
wheeled and led the First Regi
ment in a vigorous bayonet
charge upon Stuart's battalion,
while Washington, as Stuart
wavered, charged with his cav
alry. Stuart encountered per
sonally Captain John Smith, of
the Maryland regiment, and
was killed ; an expert swords
man of Washington's cavalry cut down thirteen of the enemy before
they yielded.
A repulse at this point and at that moment was so critical, that
Cornwallis ordered artillery to open upon the Americans, regardless of
the fact that his guards were exposed to the same fire. Two other Brit
ish regiments were advanced. Colonel Webster recrossed the ravine,
over which the First Maryland had driven him, to reengage in the
light. Tarleton, with his horse, and the Second Battalion of Guards,
came in from the other wing, wrhere they were less needed, concen
trating at this spot, near the Court-house, a force with which Greene
saw it was useless to contend, as any possible advantage in victory
could not compensate for certain loss. What had become of Lee's
legion ami Campbell's riflemen, who were separated from the main
body when the North Carolina militia fled in a panic, and left the
ground they should have held to be occupied by the enemy, the com
manding General did not at that moment know. Had he known that
they had fought their way successfully, with great damage to the en
emy, and were already at hand near the Court-house, Greene might
Gen. Nathanael Greene.
48 THE SOUTHERN CAMPAIGN. [CiiAr. II.
have continued the battle. As it was, with nearly the whole weight
Greene's °f Coriiwallis's force bearing upon a portion of his own, he
ordered a retreat. But it was a retreat, not a flight. The
army fell back in good order for about twelve miles, to Troublesome
Creek, upon ground selected to be used in case of a reverse.
How well fought a field it was, is plain from the report of casual
ties. About thirteen hundred of the Americans were returned as
dead, wounded, or missing, though probably a thousand of these were
only missing militiamen who had run, after shutting their eyes :ind
firing a shot, and opened them again only to find the way home.
The loss of Cornwallis was nearly a fourth of his army, or about five
hundred and fifty killed and wounded. Some of his most valuable
and distinguished officers were on this list, among them Lieutenant-
colonel Webster, who was mortally wounded, Greene wrote, before
the day was over : kt The enemy gained his cause, but is ruined by
the success of it." Fox said in the House of Commons, when the
news reached England: "Another such victory would ruin the Brit
ish army." The ruin came without the victory.
Greene was prepared for and expected an attack the next day.
Cornwall!* Cornwallis wrote to Sir Henry Clinton, at New York, that
wiling*-0 the fatigue of his troops made it impossible for him to con
tinue the pursuit of the enemy, or again to offer battle. "• 1
thought it was time," he adds, u to look for some place of rest and
refreshment." But there was a thought beneath this. He had al
ready determined to abandon the Carolinas, where he was " tired of
marching about in search of adventures." When he had reached his
place of rest, he wrote : u If we mean an offensive war in America,
we must abandon New York, and bring our whole force into Virginia.
.... If our plan is defensive, let us quit the Carolinas (which can
not be held defensively while Virginia can be so easily armed against
us) and stick to our salt pork at New York, sending now and then a
detachment to steal tobacco, etc." Two days after the battle of Guil-
ford Court-house, he was on the march for Wilmington. When
Greene discovered his purpose, he started in hot pursuit ; but he
could no more overtake Cornwallis than Cornwallis had been able to
overtake him.
END OF MILITARY OPERATIONS
ARNOLD'S EXPEDITION- TO VIRGINIA. — MLTIXY OF THE PENNSYLVAN!
CAUSE. — LAFAYETTE SENT SOUTHWARD. — CORNWALLIS'S PLANS. — DISAPPROVED
or HY CLINTON. — LAFAYETTE ADVANCES FROM MARYLAND. — JOINED BY WAYNE
AND STEUBEN. — His CAMPAIGN IN VIRGINIA. — CORNWALLIS AT WILLIAMSBURG. —
FIGHT AT JAMES ISLAND. — GREENE'S CAMPAIGN IN SOUTH CAROLINA. — BATTLE OF
HOBKIHK'S HILL. — RAWDON ABANDONS CAMDEN. — FORTS MOTTE AND GRANBY,
ORANGEBURG AND AUGUSTA, TAKEN BY" GREENE. — SIEGE OF NINETY-SIX. — ABAN
DONED HY" THE BRITISH. — HANGING OF COLONEL HAYNE. — BATTLE OF EUTAW
SPRINGS. — GREENE'S GENERALSHIP. — MOVEMENT OF THE ALLIED ARMIES. — OPE
RATIONS AGAINST NEW YORK ISLAND. — THEY MARCH SOUTHWARD — ARNOLD'S
EXPEDITION TO NEW LONDON. — ARRIVAL OF ENGLISH AND FRENCH FLEETS FROM
THE WEST INDIES. — ALLIED ARMIES IN VIRGINIA. — CORNWALLIS BESIEGED AT
YORKTOWN. — His SURRENDER.
" To steal tobacco, etc.," was the object of Arnold's expedition to
Virginia, rather than, by a well-conceived plan, to subjugate
the State and bring back the people to their allegiance to peauioii to
the King. No better instrument could be chosen for such a
work, — no man so ready as the unhappy traitor to harass and to rav
age any part of the country against which his rage glowed so fiercely,
because his abortive attempt to ruin it had brought him, on all sides,
hatred, contempt, and imperishable infamy. Clinton knew how well
50 END OF MILITARY OPERATIONS. [CHAP III.
he could depend upon the renegade General as a marauder ; but
never after that fatal morning when lie fled to the British man-of-war
Vulture, had Arnold shown any of those soldierly qualities which had
once distinguished him. The opportunity, indeed, for any splendid
achievement was lost to him ; but fear would have held him back even
had opportunity been given. What, he anxiously asked of a prisoner,
taken in this raid into Virginia, would be done with him if captured?
"• Why, sir," was the reply, " if I must answer your question, YOU
must excuse my telling you the plain truth ; if my countrymen should
catch you, I believe they would cut off that lame leg, which was
wounded in the cause of freedom and virtue, and bury it with the
honors of war, and afterwards hang the remainder of your body in
gibbets." He must have known how anxious Washington was for his
capture, and fear never forsook him. He was no longer the brave and
dashing soldier ; what little of courage there was left in him could
only face small dangers ; he saw in every bush, not merely an officer,
but a hangman.
Virginia was singularly, perhaps unavoidably, unprepared for an
invasion. Arnold landed at Westover, on James River, and marched
thence, at the head of nine hundred men, to Richmond, almost with
out sign of opposition. Four hundred of his troops were detached,
under Lieutenant-colonel Simcoe, to move upon Westham. Military
stores, private property, and many of the public archives were de
stroyed at Richmond ; at Westham, besides much else, a powder-mill
and the only cannon foundery in the State. On the return of the
troops down the James, they were annoyed by a body of militia, under
Baron Steuben, which had been hastily called out ; but Arnold
reached Portsmouth, where he intended to establish a post, having
inflicted immense damage upon the enemy, especially upon private
citizens, with a loss to his own force of only half a dozen men.
The movement was one of serious import, and demanded the imme
diate attention of Congress and of the Commander-in-chief.
Mutiny of - . . ,
thePennsyi- And it happened at a moment when they were sorely pei%-
plexed by an unlooked-for event in the Northern army,
which threatened even more serious consequences. The whole Penn
sylvania line, consisting of thirteen hundred men, mutinied, and pro
claimed their determination to return to their homes. The authority
of their officers was defied, some of whom were dangerously wounded,
and one, Captain Billing, was killed. Several of the mutineers were
also killed in this first outbreak of the insurrection ; but when a bay
onet was presented at the breast of Wayne, that brave General, who
did not know what fear was, was compelled to yield to save his own
life and the lives of his officers. The regiments then, under the com-
1781.]
MUTINY OF PENNSYLVANIA TROOPS.
51
mand of their sergeants, marched off for Princeton, taking with them
six field-pieces.
A successful revolt might become contagious, for some of the griev
ances of these men — the want of pay, the want of food, and the want
of clothing — were the grievances of the whole army. An attempt
to compel their return to duty by leading troops against them, might
prove a dangerous experiment, not merely because there was a com
munity of suffering in the whole army, but because that of which the
Mutiny of the Pennsylvania Line.
Pennsylvania troops specially complained entitled them to a good
deal of sympathy. There had been either fraud or blundering at the
time of their enlistment, and it was this injustice, rather than the
ordinary hardships of army life, which all bore alike, that had led, at
last, to mutiny.
The law of Congress under which they were enlisted provided that
the term of service should be either for three years or for the
war — one or the other. The ambiguity of its terms either
misled or was taken advantage of. Most of the men declared that
52 END OF MILITARY OPERATIONS. [CHAI-. III.
they had rightfully understood the text of the statute, and having en
listed, not for the war, but for three years only, they were now enti
tled to their discharge. It was claimed, on the other hand, that the
enlistment was for three years in any event, and for the war, should it
extend beyond that period.
The question became, therefore, one of legal interpretation, and \v;ts
wisely left to the civil authorities. In the settlement, other matters
were taken into consideration, and arrearages of pay and a supply of
clothing were provided for. That it was no want of patriotism, but a
sense of gross wrong, in addition to absolute physical suffering, that led
those men to resort to so desperate a measure as revolt, they showed
by one very unequivocal act. When Sir Henry Clinton sent
Militaries emissaries among them to aggravate the difficulty by offer
ing to the mutineers aid and protection, and to receive them
within his own lines, these messengers were delivered to the proper
authorities to be executed as spies. There were, however, men in the
army who, without the same reason for dissatisfaction that existed in
the Pennsylvania line, had none of their scruples. A brigade of New
Jersey troops, soon after the adjustment of the first difficulty, revolted
in the hope of extorting concessions. Washington ordered a detach
ment, under General Howe, to reduce them to obedience, and to
hang the ringleaders without delay, and his orders were promptly
executed.
Threatening as these events appeared at the moment, the real con
dition of affairs was more hopeful, at this period, for the Americans
than for the other side. The States raised a large sum of money to
appease the not unreasonable clamors of the soldiers, and to put the
army in a better condition than it had ever been before. It was,
moreover, evident, after the suppression of the mutiny in the Jersey
brigade, that the earnest patriotism of the troops — which must be
after all the essential element of their efficiency — could be implicitly
relied upon. There was a certain freedom of action in Congress, —
as in substituting for the clumsy committees, through which the pub
lic business had been carried on, bureaus of foreign affairs, of finance,
of war, and of the navy, to be intrusted to secretaries, — which indi
cated a larger statesmanship and a higher confidence in themselves as
the representatives of a nation. And the States, by the adoption of
the Articles of Confederation, — which had been under dis-
Artides of . -. , ,
confedera- cussiou for five years, — were drawn together in a more de
cided bond of federal union, which, however imperfect, was
an evidence of their faith in the establishment of a national exist
ence. The English ministry, blind to these signs of the times, were
never more sanguine, than at this period, of the early suppression of
1781.] LAFAYETTE SENT SOUTHWARD. 53
what they still looked upon as only a rebellion ; they were uncon
scious all the while that in the divided counsels among their generals
in America lay an element of weakness which was leading slowly
but surely to final disaster.
Washington recognized the significance of Arnold's invasion of
Virginia, and in February made preparations for a campaign
Lafayette
in that State. A detachment of twelve hundred men, mainly sent "to
of New England troops, under Lafayette, was ordered to the
head of Chesapeake Bay, to embark for the lower part of Virginia.
The British fleet under Arbuthnot, blockading the French at New
port, had been recently disabled by a storm, and Washington pro
posed to Rochambeau and Admiral Destouches that advantage should
be taken of this accident to send the whole squadron to Chesapeake
Bay in aid of the movement under Lafayette. There was a month's
delay before the whole fleet put to sea, though in the mean time
three of the ships sailed for Portsmouth and found Arnold too strong
ly posted to be meddled with by so small a force. When Destouches
afterward went to sea he was overtaken by Arbuthnot off the Capes
of Virginia, and an engagement followed which sent the French fleet
back to Newport.
"There seems but little wanting," — Clinton wrote to Cornwallis
early in March, — "to give a mortal stab to rebellion, but a proper
reenforcement, and a permanent superiority at sea, for the next cam
paign." He only waited to hear that the French fleet had returned
to Newport, when General Phillips was sent with an additional force
of two thousand men to take command in Virginia. The campaign
that followed was a continuation of that which Arnold had begun.
There was much marching and countermarching up and down the
Peninsula; detachments embarked at several points, to land at others
which were undefended; trading vessels were destroyed; much tobacco
and many stores of provisions were burned ; Phillips pursued Steuben
and Steuben pursued Phillips, with no great harm to either : but the
whole country was ravaged, and consternation and suffering visited
upon the inhabitants on both sides the James. No attempt, however,
was made to fortify or to hold any other place than Portsmouth.
These operations were intended only to help Cornwallis at the
South by depriving Greene of men and supplies — except, of course,
the general aim of all war to bring the most distress upon those
who least deserve it and are most defenceless. That more compre
hensive idea of Cornwallis — that there must be an absolute con
quest and possession of Virginia — evidently hail little influence over
Clinton's plans. He clung to his original policy of conquering the
South from Georgia northward, while he, with the help of the fleet,
54 EXI) OF MILITARY OPERATIONS. [€HAP. III.
should hold Washington and Rochambeau immovable on the Hudson
and at Newport.
" Greene took the advantage " —Cornwallis wrote to Phillips late
cornwaiiis's m April from Wilmington — kl of my being obliged to come
plans. £0 j.]jjg p]ace? an(j ]ias marched to South Carolina." Disaster,
he apprehended, would follow to Lord Rawdon ; but it was not in his
power, he thought, to succor him. The truth was, he did not wish to
help Rawdon ; neither did he mean to be helped himself to hold the
Carolinas. He wrote to Clinton a month later, with great coolness,
that if Greene should continue offensive operations in South Carolina,
Rawdon would probably be compelled to abandon Camden and Nine
ty-Six, quit " a part of the country, which for some months past \ve
have not really possessed," and content himself with limiting the
defence of that province to the line of the Congaree and the Santee.
But now, in April, the Commander-in-chief was notified of the in
tended movement into Virginia, and in accordance with that deter
mination, Cornwallis ordered Phillips to meet him, if possible, at
Petersburg. When Clinton received this despatch his reply was, that
had it been " intimated " to him earlier that such a movement was
proposed, " I should certainly have endeavored to have stopped you,
as I did then as well as now consider such a movement as
Disapproved •..,•, ,-, . ,,
ofbyciin- likely to be dangerous to our interests in the Southern
Colonies." With this clash of opinion and of purpose, all
cordiality of feeling ceased between the two Generals, and with it all
efficient cooperation in the conduct of the war.
Lafayette, after a delay of some weeks, had been ordered to march
Lafayette to Virginia, from Baltimore, much to the discontent of his
New England men, who dreaded exposure to the heat of a
Southern summer. To quell a threatened mutiny, one of the ring
leaders was executed, and the rest were then told that those who
chose to desert their country in time of danger were at liberty to go
home. It was the end of insubordination ; not a man left the ranks.
Lafayette borrowed two thousand guineas on his personal credit, and
used this sum in the purchase of shoes and of cotton cloth which the
ladies of Baltimore made into shirts for his men. In nine davs the
march was made from Baltimore to Richmond.
When Arnold — General Phillips having died at Petersburg, of
fever, before Cornwallis reached there — was reenforced
overrun by by Cornwallis, Lafayette's force was largely outnumbered,
and he fell back to make a junction with Wayne, who was
approaching with eight hundred of the Pennsylvania line. To pre
vent this junction was Cornwallis's first object ; his second to overrun
the country, and to destroy tobacco and all public stores of provisions.
1781.]
MOVEMENTS IN VIRGINIA.
55
Of Lafayette he said, " The boy cannot escape me." Of the ac
cumulations of provisions in private hands, his orders were that only
so much was to be spared as supplied the immediate necessities of the
families. In work of this kind, Tarleton and Simcoe were especially
active; for, mounting their men on the best horses to be found on the
plantations, they moved with great celerity, and had no scruples in
obeying the orders of destruction to the very letter. In one of these
excursions Tarleton was only a few minutes too late at Charlottes-
French and American Uniforms.
ville to capture Governor Jefferson and the whole Legislature of the
State.1
1 Jefferson's plantation of " Monticello " was taken by the enemy, and he there also
narrowly escaped capture. Expeditions into the interior of the State were made by water
as well as by land, and one of these, anchoring opposite Mount Vernon, sent on shore for
provisions. They were supplied by Lund Washington, who was in charge of the estate.
When he reported to the Commander-in-chief the losses consequent upon this visitation.
Washington wrote in reply: "I am sorry to hear of your loss. I am a little sorry to hear
of my own. But that which gives me most concern is, that you should have gone on board
the vessels of the enemy and furnished them with refreshments. It would have been a less
painful circumstance to me to have heard, that in consequence of your non-compliance with
their request, they had burnt my home and laid the plantation in ruins."
56 END OF MILITARY OPERATIONS. [CHAP. III.
Lafayette was not overtaken, and the pursuit was relinquished
when he was ioined, first by Wayne, and a day or two after
Wayne and "
steubenjoiii by Steubeii, with a considerable body of militia. Disap-
Lafaj ette. J . ..... . . , .
pointed m Ins immediate object, Cornwallis countermarched
down the valley of the James, leaving Richmond on the 20th of June,
called in his detachments under the bold riders, Tarleton and Simcoe,
and arrived at Williamsburg on the 2oth. The first fighting of the
campaign was when, within half-a-dozen miles of that place, Colonel
Butler, aided by Wayne, struck the rear-guard of the enemy under
Simcoe. and came near bringing on a general battle. The loss on
each side was about thirty killed and wounded, Lafayette withdrawing
when he saAv that the whole British force was preparing to engage.
The day after his arrival at Williamsburg, Cornwallis received
dispatches from Clinton, the expectation of which, and the
Cornwall!* A .
at \viiiiams- orders he supposed they would bring him, had mliuenceu
him in his retreat from the upper country. Clinton wrote
that he had reason to believe that New York was about to be l>e-
seiged ; that as Cornwallis was evidently not disposed to act upon
the plan which the Commander-in-chief had laid down for the con
duct of the campaign — a movement up the Chesapeake and an attack
upon Philadelphia — and then to move on to New York — the next
best thing to be done was for Cornwallis to put himself behind de
fences at Portsmouth or Yorktown, and send three thousand men
from his force to Clinton's relief.
Cornwallis obeyed, but obeyed sullenly. The difference between
them was irreconcilable. Clinton clung to the policy of the conquest
of the southernmost States first, as the only way to end the rebellion.
Cornwallis had tried that plan, as he believed, thoroughly, and found
it utterly impracticable. For the sake of driving in the wedge that
was to split the confederacy in halves, he had said it would be bet
ter even to abandon New York and concentrate in Virginia. Lord
George Germaine rather agreed with him, not at all because he had
taken the trouble to qualify himself to form an intelligent judgment
upon the subject, but because he believed in the Earl of Cornwallis
and did not much believe in Sir Henry Clinton. Clinton, neverthe-
Differcnces ^ess? was Commander-in-chief, and now that he chose to give,
ciintoiTand p^i'^niptory orders, Cornwallis rendered that kind of implicit
obedience which is almost certain to defeat its object. He
would do nothing to avert failure, should failure come, where his
counsel had been disregarded. He was plainly quite willing that
Clinton should have every opportunity to prove himself in the wrong,
though it is not at all likely that he apprehended the final catastrophe
which would bring disaster and disgrace to both.
1781.]
GREENE'S CAMPAIGN AT THE SOUTH.
His preparations for retiring to Portsmouth were soon completed,
and on the 4th of July the march was begun. Lafayette fol- Fightat
lowed in close pursuit, and on the 6th, supposing the main Jamestown-
body of the enemy to have crossed to Jamestown Island, an attack
was made upon what he presumed to be the rear-guard. Cornwallis,
anticipating this movement, had remained upon the north bank of
the river, and confronted the advance with his whole force. The
Americans were driven back, and, but for a bold charge with the
bayonet made by Wayne and his Philadelphia troops, might have
been signally defeated.
The situation of affairs was one that might well give both the Eng
lish Generals great anxiety. While Cornwallis sullenly obeyed the
orders of his superior, by
which he felt that Virginia
was lost to them, lie sub
mitted it to the considera
tion of Clinton whether it
was "worth while to hold a
sickly, defensive post in this
Bay," liable always to sud
den attack, which neither
facilitated predatory excur
sions into the State — if that
was all that was to be done
— nor was of assistance to
movements farther south. It
was plain, moreover, by this
time, that those Southern
States, to regain which so
much time, so much treas-
ure, and so many lives, had been spent, were lost — lost, Cornwallis
of course believed, because his plan of driving the wedge home in
Virginia had been rejected ; lost, Clinton of course believed, because
his well-conceived plan of Southern conquest had been abandoned
for a scheme which, if carried out, would compel him to exchange
New York for Richmond, — New York Bay for James River.
For Greene had "taken advantage," — as Cornwallis said, — of his
abandonment of North Carolina, and marched southward.
Lee was detached to loin Marion and cut off Lord Raw- campaign at
, , .... „, , 1-111 the South.
don s communication with Charleston, on which he de
pended for supplies. This was done by the capture of Fort Watson
on the Santee. The besiegers were without artillery, but Major
Maham suggested the erection of a wooden tower of logs, the top of
Lord Cornwallis.
58 END OF MILITARY OPERATIONS. [CHAP. III.
which would overlook the stockade. When this was completed, the
sharp-shooters from behind a breastwork could pick off the garrison
at their leisure, and a white flag was speedily hung out in token of
surrender. The fall of the place gave the Americans command of
the road from Charleston to Camden, and a force of five hundred
men, under Major Watson, on the way to reenforce Rawdon, was
compelled to fall back and seek another route.
Marion and Lee were to join Greene at Camden, when they should
have reduced Fort Watson ; before their arrival, however,
iiobkirk's Greene, who had encamped upon a low ridge called Hob-
kirk's Hill, near the town, was attacked on the 25th of April
by Rawdon, who hoped to repulse him before reinforcements could
come to his help. Greene was taken by surprise ; but the British
advance was delayed by his pickets long enough to enable him to
form a battle line. The attack was made with great spirit. Both
wings of the enemy, however, were wavering under the warm recep
tion given them by the Virginia brigade, under General Huger, on the
right, and the Maryland brigade, under Colonel Williams, on the left,
while Colonel Washington dashed in upon their rear with his cav
alry. But, at the critical moment, the veteran regiment of Colonel
Gunby, of the Maryland brigade, was seized with an unreasonable
panic, and fell back in disorder. Into the gap thus made the enemy
rushed with a shout, the whole line was thrown into confusion, and
the summit of the ridge was carried. It was impossible to rally the
veterans, who had lost some of their best officers ; the reserve in the
rear, consisting only of militia, could not be relied upon, and Greene,
therefore, ordered a retreat to save his army. His loss in killed and
wounded was two hundred and seventy-one, out of a total of about
fourteen hundred men ; that of Rawdon was even larger, being two
hundred and fifty-eight out of about nine hundred.
Like the victory of Guilford Court-house, it was a victory without
gain. By the sacrifice of nearly one third of his men, Rawdon de
layed, for about two weeks only, what it wras Greene's object to
compel him to do, when the American army should be reenforced by
Marion and Lee. These two officers could not prevent Wutson from
joining Rawdon, by which his strength was nearly doubled , but nei
ther could Rawdon compel Greene to risk a second general battle, nor
to leave him unmolested. With communications between Charleston
and the interior already actually interrupted, or likely to be so, either
camdcn ^y Greene, Marion, or Lee, Camden was abandoned on the
STheTru- 10th of May by Rawdon, who burned all the stores he could
not take away, and a considerable portion of the town. Or
ders were given at the same time for the evacuation of other posts,
but were not obeyed, because the despatches were intercepted.
1781.]
CAPTURE OF FORT MOTTE.
From Camden, Rawdon marched toward Motte's Fort, on the Con-
garee, above the junction with the Wateree, at that moment besieged
by Lee and Marion, that he might relieve the garrison and save the
most important post between Ninety-Six and Charleston. Greene
moved toward the same point by another way, that he might be at
hand to protect the besiegers in case of necessity. This fort was a
spacious family mansion, situated upon a hill, prepared to withstand
a siege, and holding a garrison of nearly two hundred. The owner,
a Mrs. Motte, had been turned out of it and compelled to remove to
Preparing to burn Fort Motte.1
a farm-house upon an opposite hill, not many yards distant. From
this point, the siege was conducted with not much hope of success by
ordinary measures. When the news of Rawdon's approach reached
the camp, Marion and Lee determined that, as no time was to be lost,
the house should be set on fire, to compel its surrender or evacuation.
Arrows were to be used, with burning flax attached to them, by
which the wooden shingles of the roof could be ignited in many
places at the same moment. The decision was announced to Mrs.
Motte with great reluctance ; but she not only cheerfully acquiesced
1 The figure representing Mrs. Motte in this picture is from a portrait in the possession
of her descendants.
60 END OF MILITARY OPERATIONS. [CHAP. III.
in it, but brought out a well-inn de Indian bow and some arrows, as
Fort Motto better adapted to the purpose than any that the men could
make on the instant. The roof was soon ablaze in several
places. No measures could be taken to extinguish it by the garrison,
under the fire of the sharp-shooters, and the commanding officer has
tened to hang out a white flag.
From Fort Motte, Lee pushed on to Fort Granby, farther up the
river toward Ninety-Six, and reduced it in a few hours. An-
other of the line of posts between Ninety-Six and Charles-
ton, at Orangeburg, was captured about the same time by
Sumter, who had taken the field again with a body of militia.
A few days later, Georgetown, on the coast, fell into the hands of
Marion. Rawdon, unable to follow his active enemy at so many
points, and discouraged by these repeated disasters, fell back behind
the San tee to Monk's Corner, and soon after to Charleston. Of nil
the inland posts in South Carolina and Georgia, Ninety-Six and Au
gusta alone remained in British possession by the 1st of June. On
the 5th of that month, Pickens and Lee — having first reduced the
small post known as Fort Galphin, a dozen miles below Augusta, on
the Savannah River — compelled the surrender of Augusta, ending a
long siege by bringing to bear upon the interior works a " Maham
tower " of logs, by means of which Fort Watson had been reduced a
few weeks before. By these successive and rapid captures, many pris
oners and large stores of provisions and ammunition had fallen into the
hands of the Americans.
While the siege of Augusta was in progress, Greene sat down be-
siegeof f°re Ninety-Six. The place — so called because it was
Ninety-Six. ninety-six miles from the chief town of the Cherokee Nation
— was an important post, and therefore strongly fortified ; its five
hundred and fifty men were all Americans, commanded by Lieuten
ant-colonel John Harris Cruger, a loyalist from New York; and it
was certain, therefore, that the defence would be desperate. There
was nothing the Tories so much dreaded as to fall into the hands of
the Whigs, as there was nothing the Whigs so much dreaded as to
fall into the hands of the Tories. It would be hardly true to say that
Cruger was peculiarly obnoxious ; for, as no Tory leader would per
mit himself to be outdone by any other Tory leader in cruel persecu
tion of the patriots, so they were all obnoxious alike. Cruger had
hanged many of the opposite party who had fallen into his hands, and
he hoped, he said, to hang many more. The gibbet was the sign un
der which both sides hoped to conquer, so far as the war was a civil
war, and Cruger and his followers knew that military discipline was
not always strong enough to save men from the gallows, even though
1781.]
NINETY-SIX.
61
they were prisoners of war, who were themselves hangmen when the
chance was on their side. Under Greene's immediate command, out
rages of this character were unknown ; yet the enthusiasm of his army
was at fever-heat when brought before the last stronghold in the
State, west of Charleston, held by the enemy, and that defended by
Tories alone.
The approaches were diligently made under the skilful direction
of Kosciusko, and among these was the " Maham tower," which had
proved so efficient in other
places. As a protection
^— against the
The Water-carriers of Ninety-Six.
tire which
from this
structure could be brought to
bear upon the garrison, sand
bags were piled upon the par-
rapets. The siege was pressed
with great vigor from the 22d of May to the 19th of June, and the
garrison was reduced almost to extremity for want of water, which
could only be brought in small quantities by a few negroes at night —
stripped naked, that they might be invisible in the darkness. The
place would probably have fallen from sheer exhaustion, had the in
vestment been continued for three or four days longer.
But news was received that Rawdon, strengthened by the recent
arrival of three Irish regiments, had left Charleston, and was march
ing to the relief of his last stronghold in the interior. A countryman
62 END OF MILITARY OPERATIONS. [CHAP. III.
— or, as some say, a woman — contrived to get within the fortress
with this important intelligence, and Greene, who had not half the
force that Rawdon was bringing against him, was compelled either to
carry the place by an immediate assault, before his preparations were
quite ready, or lose altogether the labors of a month. The attack
was made in the night-time at three separate points, one column at
tempting to pull down the sand-bags from the parapets, opposite the
Maham tower, with iron hooks, while assaults were made at two
other places to get within the defences. The resistance of the garri
son was so spirited, that it was soon evident to Greene that, if the
place could be carried at all, it could only be at a greater sacrifice of
his men than his numbers warranted, and he ordered a retreat.
Rawdon arrived three days afterward, and though Ninety-Six was
for the moment saved, Greene was beyond his reach. Rawdon pur
sued the American army northward for a few days, but without over
taking it, and then reversed his march to Ninety-Six, pursued, in his
turn, by Greene. To hold the country with that single fortress, in
the face of a formidable enemy, was obviously impossible ; it was
already nearly midsummer, when the climate forbade any very active
Ninoty-six operations. Rawdon, therefore, ordered that Ninety-Six
abandoned. sl1Ould be abandoned, that its Tory garrison and the Tory
neighbors should seek refuge in Charleston, while he and his army,
at the same time, moved in the same direction. The pursuit was con
tinued till the whole British force was on the southern side of the
Santee River. Greene then retired to the High Hills on the north of
that river, to rest and recruit his wearied troops. Rawdon, broken
down in health, sailed for England, leaving Lieutenant-colonel Stew
art in command.1
One more battle only remained to be fought between the contend
ing armies of the South. Late in August, Greene took the field again,
his men invigorated by rest and the wholesome air of the hills. A
recent incident had intensified the enmity which so peculiarly charac
terized the war in the Carolinas, and the men on both sides could
Hanging of lun'dly foil to be reanimated by that feeling. Colonel Isaac
liivne. ljavriei an estimable citizen and warm patriot, was hanged
in Charleston by order of Lord Rawdon and Lieutenant-colonel
Balfour, who was in command in that city and the adjoining dis
tricts. " The affair," says Lee, in his Memoirs, u would probably
have led to a war of extermination, had not the fast approach of
peace arrested the progress of a system deliberately adopted by
1 Rawdon was so unfortunate as to be taken by a French cruiser, was carried to
Chesapeake Bay, and was present at the final discomfiture of his late commander, Corn-
wallis.
1781.] BATTLE OF EUTAW SPRINGS. 63
Greene, and ardently maintained by every individual of his army/1
General Greene had issued a proclamation, with the earnest approba
tion of the officers of his army, that the death of Hayne should be re
taliated, not upon " the deluded Americans who had joined the royal
army," but upon " the officers of the regular forces."
Hayne was one of those who, taken prisoners at the surrender of
Charleston, were released on parole. Another class of the inhabi
tants, also held at first on parole, were afterward required to give in
their allegiance to the British Government, and to take up arms, if
required, in its defence. The distinction, however, between the two
classes was probably soon forgotten ; it was, at any rate, in the
case of Colonel Hayne, and rather than be parted from his wife and
children at a time when they were in peculiar need of his care — all
being ill with small-pox, and three of them fatally — he consented to
promise allegiance to the King. To this promise he was faithful till
the British were driven out of the district in which he lived. That,
he conceived, released him from an obligation which it was a breach
of faith to enforce, and to which circumstances compelled him to sub
mit under protest. He once more took up arms on the side of his
country, was unfortunately captured, and, without any regular trial,
condemned and executed. The indignation of the people and the
army was almost ungovernable at what they considered an atrocious
abuse of military power.
By a circuitous march, crossing the Wateree and the Congaree,
Greene transferred his army to the southern side of the Santee, and
followed Stewart to Eutaw Springs, a small stream flowing into the
lower part of that river. In falling back forty miles to this point to
meet a convoy from Charleston, Stewart seems not to have been aware
how closely he was followed by Greene, though constantly annoyed by
Lee, till the two armies confronted each other at Eutaw Springs on
the 7th of September. The numbers on each side were about equal,
being a little over two thousand men.
The Americans advanced, early in the morning of the 8th, in two
columns, and met a body of the enemy about four miles from
their camp, who were speedily put to rout. Still advancing, Eutaw
the British were found drawn up in single line in front of
their tents, and here the battle began in earnest. The South Carolina
militia, forming a part of the first line, fell back under a severe fire,
though not without some spirited resistance. The rest of the line
stood their ground with great firmness, and the gap made by the re
treat of the militia was filled up instantly from the centre of the sec
ond line. All along the line the advance was steady. First with fire,
and then by a charge with the bayonet, which was irresistible, while
64 END OF MILITARY OPERATIONS. [CiiAr. III.
Lee, at the same moment, by a flank movement turned the left of the
enemy, who were forced back and driven beyond their camp. In the
pursuit, three hundred prisoners and two pieces of artillery were
taken by the Americans.
But as the main body of the British fled, Major Majoribanks, with a
reserve of a battalion of grenadiers and light infantry, moved into ac
tion, and Washington with his cavalry was sent to get in his rear.
In attempting this the horse were impeded by underbrush through
which they forced their way with great difficulty, while under a mur
derous fire from the enemy, advantageously posted in the woods.
Washington's horse was shot under him, and, entangled in its fall, he
was wounded and taken prisoner. Most of his officers and men were
either killed or wounded, and so complete was the destruction of the
corps, that Majoribanks was free almost immediately to turn to the
assistance of the defeated main body.
Near the road, along which the pursuit was necessarily made, stood
a large brick house, and on its possession largely depended the fate
of the day. A party of British threw themselves into it, followed so
closely by a party from the other side that a struggle of sheer physi
cal strength took place at the door-way to secure the entrance. The
Americans being excluded and the door barred, a fire was opened
from the three tiers of windows, which was terribly destructive. Ar
tillery was brought up to make a breach in the walls, but it was inef
fectual. The American advance was checked ; Stewart had time to
rally his flying troops ; the lost ground was recovered, the camp re
taken, — quite as much, however, because it was impossible for the
American officers to recall the men from plundering the tents and
from the barrels of rum, as from the prowess of the enemy, — and
Greene was compelled to retreat.
The battle was one of unusual severity, lasting three hours. The
British loss in killed, wounded, and prisoners was nearly seven hun
dred ; that of the Americans was somewhat less. The British claimed
the victory ; but, as the case was in all Greene's decisive battles at the
South, the essential advantage was his. Stewart retreated the next
day, and Greene followed him to within twenty miles of Charleston.
And to within twenty miles of Charleston the British forces were
South caro- confined till the war was ended, the troops of the two armies
tu're 'on-sla never again facing each other, except in the casual skir
mishes of detachments. Within a short time after this final
battle at Eutaw Springs, Governor Rutledge convened the Legisla
ture of South Carolina within thirty-five miles of Charleston.
" I give you a General," Washington said, when he sent Greene
to take command at the South. It was generalship that was most
1781.]
MOVEMENTS OF THE ALLIED ARMIES.
needed. Clinton's grand scheme for ending the war by the subjuga
tion of the Southern States had come to this — that not a corporal's
guard of the British army could be found in Georgia or the Caro-
linas, except in the near vicinity of Charleston, Savannah, and Wil
mington.
Clinton had not taken counsel of his fears only when he wrote to
Cornwallis that troops must be returned to him, for he was
apprehensive of being besieged in New York. Washington of the allied
and Rochambeau held a conference in May at Wethers-
iield, Conn., at which it was proposed that the capture of New York
should be undertaken, with the aid of the French fleet at Newport,
and that of the Count de Grasse, from the West Indies, who was
ordered to spend the summer on the American coast. That a demon
stration against
New York was de
cided upon, Clinton
knew from inter
cepted letters ; he
did not know that
an ulterior purpose
was also under con
sideration ; that as
the French com
manders doubted
the wisdom of at
tempting to invest
the city by sea, and
as De Grasse's stay
was limited to Oc
tober, it was still
an open question
Whether tlie real The Webb Mansion (Rochambeau's Headquarters), Wethersfield, Conn.
campaign of the
summer should be on the Bay of New York or on Chesapeake
Bay.
Early in June, Rochambeau issued marching orders to his army of
four thousand men. Moving in four divisions, they marched through
Connecticut, in the exhausting summer heat, in perfect order and
discipline, many of the officers leading them on foot.1 North Castle,
in Westchester County, New York, was reached from the 2d to the
1 For a minute and clear narrative of the march of the French army from Connecticut
to New York, and the subsequent operations of the allied armies east of the Hudson, see
T/ie Magazine of American History, for January, 1880.
66 END OF MILITARY OPERATIONS. [CiiAi-. 111.
4th of July, and by the 6th the allied armies were encamped in a
line from Uobbs Ferry, on the Hudson, to the Bronx River.
Washington had advanced his army from the neighborhood of West
Point a few days before, and was in readiness for active op-
Operations . ,, i,ji T i • TIT
on New York emtioiis. ,Ue proposed to take and destroy immediately the
posts on the upper end of New York Island, and on the 3d
of July, General Lincoln, with eight hundred men, dropped down the
North River in boats, with this object, and landed at the mouth of
Spyten Duyvel Creek. The legion of the Duke de Lauzun was de
tached from the French army, and ordered, by a forced inarch, to be
at Morrisania at the same time to cut off Colonel Delancey. who, at
the head of a corps of refugees, held all Westchester County in per
petual dread. The detachments were to support each other in case
of necessity, and Washington moved the rest of his army to within
four miles of King's Bridge, to be within supporting distance of both.
The movement only served to alarm and warn the enemy. Lincoln
was promptly met by a British force, and, to avoid the possibility of
being surrounded, fell back. Lauzun was too late to find Delancey,
who had left Morrisania.
Quite as much was accomplished, perhaps, as was hoped for. De
sirous as Washington was of capturing New York, he never meant to
make a serious attempt to do so with a probability of failure. If Clin
ton should be led to believe that he entertained such a purpose now,
and should recall troops sent to Virginia, that would be a relief to
Lafayette ; and it is not likely that the Commander-in-chief intended
more than this at this juncture, when it was uncertain Avhether De
Grasse would consent to attempt to enter the Bay of New York with
— as Clinton afterward called them — his " long-legged " ships. The
apprehension of a siege had already induced the British General to
withdraw from Cornwallis a considerable portion of his force ; the
appearance of a siege might induce him to withdraw Cornwallis him
self from Virginia.
The Commander-in-chief, in truth, was making a fool of Clinton.
Washington knew on the 14th of July that De Grasse had decided to
go to the Chesapeake, and that determined his own action. Vet,
seven days afterward, the British were alarmed by a reconnoissance
of five thousand men, pushed across Harlem Creek to Throg's Neck,
which occupied two days. It was apparently of so much importance
that the movement was personally directed by Washington and Ro-
chambeau. Parties of observation were often seen at the most favor
able points for overlooking the city. The gathering of stores, the
accumulation of boats, the laying out of camp-grounds, the building
of ovens, and the massing of troops in New Jersey opposite the north
1781.] MOVEMENT OF THE ALLIED ARMIES. 67
shore of Staten Island, seemed unmistakable preparations for an in
vasion of that island, which commands the entrance to New York
Bay. Clinton busied himself in strengthening his works on all sides
to meet the expected siege, and he was greatly relieved when, early
in August, a reenforcement of three thousand Hessians arrived in
New York from Bremen.
Washington, meanwhile, had written Lafayette to hold Cornwallis
where he was, and to guard especially against his escape into North
Carolina. He wrote also to Philadelphia, — to Robert Morris, the
financial agent of the government, — for information as to the quan
tity of stores to be procured for the use of the army, and the number
of vessels to be had for transportation down the Delaware and Ches
apeake Bays. About the middle of the month came definitive news
from De Grasse that he would be at the mouth of the Chesapeake by
the end of August. The time had come for which Washington had
been waiting, though probably, even now, not a man in the allied
armies — with the exception of the Commander-in-chief himself, Ro-
chambeau, and General Heath, who was to be left in command of the
force to remain on the banks of the Hudson — was aware of the
splendid strategetical movement about to begin, though a few may
have suspected it, and hoped for it.
On the morning of the 19th of August the American army was
ordered under arms, with its face toward New York, an ad- The allied
vance-guard having been sent forward to clear the road in l^f£
that direction. But when the order to march was given, southward-
the troops were faced to the right and put in rapid motion for King's
Ferry, on the North River. On the 22d they had safely crossed the
river and were encamped at Haverstraw. On the 19th, also, the
French army moved, marching to King's Ferry by way of North
Castle, occupying all the roads in their rear to guard against pursuit
from New York, should Clinton be active enough to attempt it —
which he was not. It was not till the 26th that their rear-guard had
crossed the river. '• To misguide and bewilder Sir Henry Clinton,"
wrote Washington, his column, about two thousand strong, marched
toward Springfield, 'dragging boats upon wheels, as if Staten Island
were the object of the movement. The French marched directly for
Trenton, the advance-guard being well on their way before the rear
guard had crossed the Hudson.
Clinton did not discover till the 2d of September that the supposed
siege of New York was raised, and that the allied armies — Avith the
exception of Heath's three thousand men encamped at Fishkill — had
disappeared. The American troops that day were passing through
Philadelphia. The French followed them on the 3d. There could
68
END OF MILITARY OPERATIONS.
[CHAP. III.
pedition to
New Lon
don.
be no further concealment of the destination of the armies. They
were received by the citizens with unrestrained enthusiasm, for none
were so deaf that they could not hear in the steady tramp of that
armed host a certain prophecy of the coming of great events.
It may have been with the hope of recalling Washington by a
x- threat of overrunning New England, as is often said, that
Clinton despatched an expedition against New London. As
the expedition sailed, however, on the very day he learned
that the allied armies were well on the way to Virginia, the plan of
sending Arnold, at the head of seventeen hundred men, to New Lon
don, must have been already arranged. Clinton, indeed, may have
hoped that it would influence Washington's movements ; but its origi
nal purpose was simply a predatory raid which would gather rich
booty, and inflict great loss on the enemy ; for New London was
a privateering
port, to which
valuable car
goes were of
ten taken. A
London ship,
the Hannah,
had not long
before been
carried i n
there by Cap-
tain Dudley
Saltonstall, of the privateer Minerva, laden with the richest cargo
that had been shipped to America during the war.1
Arnold landed his force at the mouth of the Thames on the Cth
of September, and, dividing it into two columns, advanced up both
banks of the river. That on the New London side Arnold com
manded in person, and between him and the town was only a single
weak fortification — Fort Trumbull — held by only three or four and
twenty men, under Captain Shapley, who, after a single volley which
killed several of the enemy, fled, and crossed trie river to join the
garrison of Fort Griswold, on the Groton side. This stronger posi
tion might have made good its defence, had not the militia in the
neighborhood declined to come to its help, though willing to face the
enemy on the open field. Lieutenant-colonel Ledyard, nevertheless,
refused to surrender, when summoned, even under the threat of no
quarter should the place be carried.
The assailants numbered between six and seven hundred men ; the
1 History of New London, by Miss Caulkins.
New London — Fac-simile from an original sketch in 1776.
1781.] ARNOLD AT NEW LONDON. 69
garrison only about one hundred and thirty or forty. The assault was
on two sides at the same moment, and was met with great
spirit. Here Colonel Eyre was wounded and carried from Fort GHS-
the field. On the other side, Major Montgomery led his
men up the embankment, and, as he reached the top, was killed with a
spear by Jordan Freeman, the colored servant of Colonel Ledyard.
Hut a struggle with such overwhelming numbers could not last long.
The British swarmed over the ramparts, and, as further resistam-e
was useless, Ledyard ordered his men to throw down their arms.
Submission only invited slaughter; it was seven men to one, and by
sword and bullet and bayonet the devoted garrison fell on all sides.
" Who commands this fort?" shouted Major Bromfield, now the
British commanding officer. " I did ; but you do now," said Ledyard,
as he presented his sword. Either with that sword, or with another
in the hand of some other officer, — tradition has left the point unset
tled, — he fell on the instant, transfixed and dead. No order was
given to stay the massacre till eighty-seven of the garrison were killed
and thirty wounded, and of these three only were killed before Led
yard gave the order to surrender. The dead were stripped of their
clothing, and when preparations were made for blowing up the mag
azine of the fort, a wagon, on which the wounded were piled, was
rolled by its own impetus down the steep declivity of the hill, tortur
ing all and killing some when it brought up suddenly against a tree.
That region had known much of Indian warfare in the early years of
its settlement, but the barbarity of the English at the capture of Fort
Griswold had no parallel in the cruelties of the savage.
Arnold, on the other side of the river, among his old friends and
neighbors, — his birthplace and the home of his youth were at Nor
wich, a few miles distant, — had entered New London. For the atroc
ities committed at Fort Griswold he was not responsible, and in the
town he gave orders that the property of some of those whom he rec
ognized should be spared ; but the pillage generally was unchecked.
The wharves, and all the shipping, except a few small vessels that
escaped up the river, nearly a hundred and fifty buildings — among
them the Episcopal church, the court-house, the custom-house, the
jail, and the market, — were destroyed. Clinton publicly expressed
regret that the town was burned, and Arnold said it was an accident.
It is impossible to prove that it was not, and, so far as Arnold is con
cerned, hardly worth while to disprove it, for a crime more or less
adds little to his infamy. Accident, however, — if it was accident
that overruled his conduct, — was singularly consistent, for fire left
even less of Groton, on the other side of the river, than it did of New
London. The tradition is, that he carefully directed the work of
70
EXD OF MILITARY OPERATIONS.
[CHAP. III.
destruction ; and it is related that a Mrs. Ilinman — whose guest
Arnold had often been in former years, and whose property, for the
sake of that old friendship, he now ordered should be spared — was
so incensed at all she saw done by his orders, that she seized a musket
and aiming at him, as he sat on horseback in front of her house, would
have killed him then and there, had not the gun missed fire.
Sir G. B. Rodney, the British Admiral in the West Indies, learning
that De Grasse had sailed for the American coast, detached
Admiral Sir Samuel Hood in pursuit, with fourteen ships
of the line. He arrived in the Chesapeake on the 25th of August,
The West
India fleets.
" Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in
peace."
but not finding the French fleet,
either there or in Delaware Bay,
kept on to New York. On the
day of his arrival at Sandy Hook, with the intelligence that De
Grasse was somewhere near the coast, Clinton heard that De Barras
had sailed from Newport with the French fleet under his command
at that port. Admiral Graves, with five ships of the line from the
squadron in New York Harbor, reenforced by Hood, put to sea, in
tending, if possible, to fall in either with De Grasse or De Barras
before they could form a junction, not doubting that the British fleet
1781.] THE ALLIED ARMIES IN VIRGINIA. 71
was more than a match for either, if encountered alone. Not meeting
with De Ban-as, they sailed for the Chesapeake, where De Grasse
had arrived on the 30th.
But De Grasse alone was stronger than the British Admirals had
supposed, and on the oth of September he stood out to sea Naval ell.
to give battle. His force was twenty-four ships, to nineteen ^gte^ape»
of the enemy, but the enemy had the advantage of being to of ^irslula-
windward. The British Admiral, however, failed for some reason to
bring all his ships into action, and the result of the encounter, if it
was anything more than a drawn battle, was a victory for the French,
as they destroyed one of the enemy's vessels, and the rest were
roughly handled. For the next four days, De Grasse kept at sea,
drawing in slowly to the Capes of Virginia, and avoiding another en
gagement. His object was gained in crippling his antagonist ; an
absolute victory was not, worth the risk of defeat, for the loss of the
possession of Chesapeake Bay would be the ruin of the expedition,
which, without his aid, would end in disaster. To Graves, defeat
would be only the loss of a naval battle — a failure to gain the su
premacy in the Chesapeake, for which he was contending ; the risk of
defeat, therefore, was nothing compared to the importance of possi
ble victory. One avoided further encounter by which he might lose
everything, and could gain nothing worth fighting for ; the other
sought a battle which, if successful, would give him all he was
striving for, but, if lost, would leave him no worse off than before.
De Grasse returned to his anchorage in Chesapeake Bay, where he
found De Barras, who, by keeping well out to sea, had escaped his
pursuers. Graves returned to New York baffled, and in fact defeated.
Seaward there was no hope for Cornwallis.
On the 25th of September, the allied armies — a small portion
coming by Avater down the Delaware and the Chesapeake —
had arrived at Williamsburg,1 where they were joined by armies in
the army under Lafayette. Early in August, Cornwallis, in
obedience to orders from Clinton, had evacuated Portsmouth, and
taken possession of and fortified Yorktown and Gloucester, on the op-
1 An incident occurred on this march which we do not remember to have ever seen in
print. The authority for it is General Knox, who related it to the author's father. When
passing through Pennsylvania, General Washington and his staff, General Knox, and
others, stopped at a farm-house to breakfast. When the meal was finished, and the party
were waiting for their horses, the people of the neighborhood were admitted to pay their
respects to the Commander-in-chief, for whom the popular love and admiration were uni
versal. Among the visitors was an old and venerable man, evidently the patriarch of the
place, who approached Washington and stood before him for a few moments, gazing in
his face without speaking. The attitude of the aged patriot was observed by all in the
room in perfect silence, when, raising his hands and eves to heaven, he exclaimed, in tones
of mingled pathos and veneration — " Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace,
for mine eyes have seen thy salvation."
72 END OF MILITARY OPERATIONS. [CiiAi>. III.
posite banks of York River. In accordance, apparently, with his
fixed purpose of obeying his superior officer, on whom lie
at York- chose that the full responsibility should rest, he made no
remonstrance, though not approving the order. He was, of
course, no more aware then than Clinton was, that subsequent events
would prove how fatal a mistake that movement was ; he only be
lieved that his enforced inactivity would show in the end that he was
right and Clinton wrong, while apprehending that no other evil would
follow than the loss of opportunity for a successful campaign. There
seems to be almost a spice of satisfaction in the curt brevity of his
despatches to Clinton announcing the arrival of I)e Grasse; but when
he learns that Washington is at Williamsburg, he sees how desperate
his position is, and writes to Clinton — "If you cannot relieve me
very soon, you must be prepared to hear the worst ; " and it was only
after he was compelled to surrender, that he declared the post was
one which he had never looked upon "in a favorable light,1'- — that it
could "only be reckoned an intrenched camp," — that " nothing but
the necessity of fortifying it as a post to protect the navy could have
induced any person to erect works upon it." Clearly as he saw tin;
end, however, when he knew that the French fleet was in possession
of the bay, and that Washington and Rochanibeau were, with Lafay
ette, within twenty miles of him on the Peninsula, he did not lost;
courage. The desperate condition of affairs seems, on the other hand,
to have completely bewildered and unnerved Clinton. He had no
orders to give Cornwallis — who was immovable without them — to
provide for his safety, when such orders might possibly have saved
him. He wrote that he should come to the aid of his unfortunate
lieutenant ; but he only came when it was too late.
By the 30th of September Yorktown was surrounded, from a point
Yorktown on ^MO 1'iver above to another below, the French being on
the right, the Americans on the left, Cornwallis retired
within his works, and for the next nine days he saw weaving around
him a mingled web of ditches, redoubts, and batteries, from which he
could never break. He kept up a frequent fire upon the busy sol
diers, whose task was never intermitted, by night or by day, and who
were sometimes brought down dead or wounded ; but there was no
reply till the 9th of October, when the first parallel was finished.
A battery, on that day, under command of Col. John Lamb, of the
artillery, opened fire, the match being applied by the Commander-in-
chief to the first gun discharged. Governor Nelson, of Virginia, was
asked to direct the cannonading of the town. He pointed out a cer
tain house as likely to be, from its size and appointments, the British
headquarters. The house was his own.1
1 Sparks's Writings of Washington.
1781.] SURRENDER OF CORNWALLIS. 73
For four days the fire was incessant ; most of the batteries of the
enemy were ruined, and their guns dismounted ; the largest English
man-of-war and two transports in the harbor were set on fire and
destroyed. The situation of Cornwallis was becoming daily more
desperate ; of his seven thousand men, two thousand were in hospital,
incapable of service ; his assailants were not less than fifteen thou
sand, and by a second parallel they had advanced to within three hun
dred yards of his works. But Clinton had assured him that on the
5th he should sail from New York with five thousand men, and come
to the rescue. Cornwallis held out in the hope of his coming.
On the 14th, his two most important redoubts were carried by as
sault, — one by Lafayette, the other by the Baron de Viomenil. On
the 16th, a sortie was made, before daybreak, on the other side, a
hundred Frenchmen killed, and some cannon spiked ; but reenforce-
ments coming up from the trenches, the British were driven back
within their works. Eleven days had passed, and Clinton had not
come.
Cornwallis now determined to trust to his own devices, and to wait
no longer for help from New York. He wrote, indeed, to
Clinton on the loth, — u The safety of the place is so pre- attempts to
carious that I cannot recommend that the fleet and army
should run great risque in endeavouring to save us."' The sortie had
failed even to gain time ; the only thing left was to save the army by
flight, or to surrender instantly. Enough of the convalescents from
the hospitals were to be posted upon the ramparts for a pretence that
the place was still occupied ; then his whole effective force was to be
embarked, on the night of the 16th, to cross the river to Gloucester,
leaving behind the baggage, the stores, the sick, and the wounded,
commending these by letter to the humanity of Washington, into
whose hands they were about to fall.
Gloucester was invested by three thousand five hundred men, under
General Choise. These Cornwallis proposed to fall upon suddenly,
and, breaking through them, make good his escape into the upper
country. On the way he hoped to seize horses enough to mount his
army, by rapid marches delay pursuit, and baffle interruption by leav
ing it uncertain whether his object was to retreat to North Carolina
or join Clinton at New York.
At midnight the weather favored him, and the first division crossed
the river. But as the boats were returning for the second <?urn,n,|crof
division, there came on a sudden and violent storm, which *orktown-
dispersed and drove them down the river. They were not recovered
till after daylight, and then the troops that had crossed were brought
back. Yorktown was no longer tenable, and before sunset of that
74
END OF MILITARY OPERATIONS.
[ClIAP. III.
day Cornwallis offered to surrender. On the 19th the terms of capit
ulation were concluded. In the imposing ceremonies of surrender
Cornwallis took no part, but was represented by General OTIara, the
second in command, whose sword, when presented to General Lin
coln, was immediately returned to him. The commanding General
pleaded illness in excuse for his absence, and, in truth, he had reason
for illness ; but it is hardly uncharitable to see in this the token of
that insubordinate and impatient temper which had led, in some
measure, to this great catastrophe. That had happened which, he
ought to have reflected, was, in certain contingencies, sure to happen ;
but he seems to have thought it quite as great an outrage that he
should be compelled to submit to the inevitable, as that he should
be required to submit to the judgment and authority of a superior
officer.
On that day. also, Clinton sailed from New York to the relief of
Yorktown — to sail back again when, on the 24th, off the Capes, he
learned that every British soldier in Virginia was a prisoner of war.
If he remembered then to regret his own dawdling, it was probably,
to regret only that he had been too cautious ; if he was moved to
sympathy for his unfortunate countrymen, that sympathy, perhaps,
was swallowed up in reflections upon the man whose obstinate self-
will, he believed, had first frustrated the plans of his Commander-in-
chief, and then, by a faithless obedience to a forced construction of
orders, brought ruin upon his army, and upon his country disaster for
which there was no remedy.
lizabeth Town Stage-wagon. Two days to Philadelphia."
From a newspaper advertisement, 1781.
CHAPTER IV.
FIRST YEAKS OF PEACE.
EFFECT OF THE SURRENDER. — ACKNOWLEDGMENT OF INDEPENDENCE. — A TREATY
OF PEACE NEGOTIATED AND SIGNED. — THE VERMONT QUESTION. — ITS FINAL
SETTLEMENT. — CONDITION AND TEMPER OF THE ARMY. — THE NEWBUBGH AD
DRESSES. — CESSATION OF HOSTILITIES. — EVACUATION OF NEW YORK. — WASH
INGTON'S FAREWELL. — WEAKNESS OF CONGRESS. — RELATIONS OF THE FEDERAL
AND STATE GOVERNMENTS. — NECESSITY FOR UNION. — COMMERCIAL POLICY. —
THE ARMY. — THE NORTHWEST TERRITORY. — THE ORDINANCE OF 1787. — THE
QUESTION OF REVENUE. — SHAYS'S REBELLION.
THE surrender of Corn wall is was virtually the end of war between
England and America. On the 25th of November, the dis- Effeet0fthe
agreeable tidings reached London. The struggle thence- surrender-
forth was to be a struggle of party, not of arms. Parliament met
two days afterward, and amendments were moved in both houses to
that portion of the King's address in which a vigorous prosecution of
the war was proposed, notwithstanding this crowning disaster at
Yorktown. Any appeal in the Upper House to common sense or to
the sense of national justice, was of course hopeless. In the Com
mons the opposition grew day by day more vigorous. Outside of
both, a large body of the people were tired of wasting life and treas
ure to no purpose, and were alarmed at the rapid progress, both by
sea and by land, of the French in the insular English colonies.
Lord George Germaine was first thrown over to appease the
clamor for peace. It was not enough. In February, 1782, a res
olution was passed in the House of Commons, declaring that they
Avho advised a continuation of the war in America were enemies of
their country. Two or three weeks later, repeated motions of cen
sure of the Ministry and of want of confidence were only lost by
small and decreasing majorities at each motion. The indignant King
threatened to retire to Holland ; but the threat frightened nobody.
In March, Lord North announced the dissolution of his administra
tion, and a new one was soon formed, with Lord Rockingham at its
head, and the Earl of Shelburne as Secretary for the Colonies.
76
FIRST YEARS OF PEACE.
[CHAP. IV.
The first condition of Rockingham's consent to accept office was
the independence of the United States. Informal measures
encePa"- to that end were taken in April, when Mr. Richard Oswald
was sent by Shelburne to Paris to confer with Franklin, one
of the American Commissioners in Europe, with John Adams, John
Jay, and Henry Laurens.1 Delay arose in the first place from a dif
ference between the two Secretaries of State, Shelburne and Fox,
each claiming that negotiations with America belonged to his office,
lint this embarrassment ended when, on the death of Rockingham in
July, Shelbnrne became First
Lord of the Treasury, and Fox
retired from office. This, how
ever, disposed of only an initial
difficulty ; for, when official rela
tions were established between
the English and American
Commissioners, the preliminary
question, whether independence
should be acknowledged before
negotiations were entered upon,
or whether it should be an arti
cle of the treaty itself, had first
to be settled. .lay especially
insisted upon the acknowledg
ment of independence as a nec
essary preliminary to the dis
cussion of a treaty. Both he
and Adams believed that this
was contrary to the wishes and
purpose of Vergennes, the French minister, and that his influence
was secretly used against America on the question of the boundaries
and that of the fisheries. It was, moreover, the interest of Eng
land that the negotiations between the several powers should be sep
arate and distinct. With France and Spain the reverse was true,
as they hoped, by prolonging negotiations and entangling the Amer
ican claims and proposals with their own, to make better terms for
themselves.
1 Laurens was a prisoner in the Tower of London for nearly two years, having been
captured on his way to Holland in the .summer of 1780. Among his papers was found
the draft of a treaty, which had neither the sanction of the States General nor of Con
gress, but had been drawn up by William Lee and certain private persons in Amsterdam.
It was held, however, in England, to be evidence of hostility on the part of Holland, and
led to a rupture between the two governments. Laurens was exchanged for Cornwallis
soon after the negotiations for peace between the United States and England were begun.
Count de Vergennes.
1782.] THE PRELIMINARY TREATY. 77
A satisfactory settlement of these questions was at length reached,
the most difficult — that relating to the preliminary acknowledgment
of independence — by the assent of Jay to the use of the term " the
thirteen United States of America," instead of naming each State,
as the equivalent of preliminary recognition. In the discussion of the
details of a treaty, the disagreements, though serious, were
overcome by England's yielding on the more important ques- of a treaty
tions to the determination of the United States. England
wished to retain the valley of the Ohio ; to extend the western line
of Nova Scotia so as to enclose a larger portion of the territory of
Maine ; to insure compensation to Tories for their losses ; to deprive
Americans of the right to fish on the Grand Bank, and the privilege
of drying fish on British territory. But by the treaty the eastern
boundary-line of the United States was made the St. Croix ; the
northern, the St. Lawrence and the Lakes ; the western, the Missis
sippi — which was to be free to both nations — to its supposed
source ; the southern, not differing essentially from the present north
ern line of Florida when extended to the Mississippi. Restitution of
property to Loyalists by Congress was impossible, as confiscation was
the act of the States. The Commissioners could only agree that the
several States should be advised to make compensation ; knowing
very well, and saying so frankly, that not the least heed would be
paid to that gratuitous suggestion. It was provided, however, that
there should be no further confiscations, and no impediments should
be thrown in the way of the collection of debts incurred before the
war. The right to the fisheries in eastern waters, and the privilege
of drying fish on the uninhabited lands of the coast, were secured
to the Americans by the persistence of John Adams, who would not
desert the interests of Northern industry. Laurens, the Southern
Commissioner, was also careful to remember the Southern working-
men ; he guarded against their asserting their right to the " pur
suit of happiness," in the prohibition of " carrying away any ne
groes " in the withdrawal of British troops and ships from the United
States.
These were the essential stipulations of the preliminaiy treaty, the
first article of which acknowledged the independence of the late
colonies — for that, as the unhappy King had said, was " the dread
ful price " of peace. It was signed on the 30th of November, 1782,
but the final ratification was delayed nearly a year. The three allied
powers were pledged to each other not to conclude a peace except
by common consent ; and the United States, therefore, was compelled
to wait for the more difficult adjustment of the differences between
Great Britain and France and Spain.
78 FIRST YEARS OF PEACE. [CHAP. IV.
That long season of waiting was a time of trial in the United
States — trials both civil and military. Civil war on the northern
frontier had more than once seemed inevitable in the course
montques- of the current years, as a consequence of the determination
of Vermont to maintain her existence as an independent
State in spite of the territorial claims of New York on one side, of
New Hampshire on the other, and the support which both received
from Congress. The case was one always of serious import ; and in
the spring of 1781 it put on a new and alarming aspect.
Vermont had repeatedly asked for admission into the Union, but
this had been denied her, partly because of the opposition of her
neighbors, who claimed her territory, and partly because of the
jealousy of the Southern States, who feared then, as they have feared
ever since, the admission of any Northern State without a Southern
State to counterbalance it.
But Vermont, claiming now to be a State, had no political existence
as a distinct colony of the Crown at the time when the other thirteen
States were created by an agreement between the representatives of
thirteen revolting royal colonies. The thirteen new States, therefore,
were under no legal obligation to admit that community of citizens
into their confederacy as a fourteenth State. And of course it was
equally true that those citizens, if they had established an autonomy
of their own, were quite as free from any obligation to the Union as the
Union was to them. If, however, the half of Vermont belonged to
New York and the other half to New Hampshire, the question involved
another consideration. As the members of the confederacy were
bound to defend the territory of one another, then the duty of Con
gress was clear if the claims of those two States were unquestionable.
But there was no such easy solution of the difficulty. The ques
tion involved, in the first place, the interpretation of the original
patent to the Plymouth Company, in 1620, and their grants in the
several New England States; and in the second place, the meaning
of the terms of the grant to James, Duke of York, in 1G64, and its
renewal in 1674. Even the most modern title to the lands west of
the Connecticut, on which New York could rely, — that the King
and Council, induced to do so, it was alleged, by false representations,
had declared, in 1765, that the west bank of the river was her east
ern boundary, — was offset, in a measure, by a royal order of 1767,
forbidding New York to make any more grants of land in the dis
puted territory. This order was never rescinded, and the Crown,
therefore, it was declared, had resumed authority over the region in
question as royal domain.
At the breaking out of the Revolution, the " Green Mountain
1 782.]
THE VERMONT QUESTION.
79
The Green
Mountain
Boys.
Boys," as they called them
selves, were in ac
tual possession of
the country ; for,
though New York had dis
obeyed the royal injunction,
and had continued to grant
the lands, she was unable to
establish her authority in
the disputed territory. On
whom, then, when the royal
prerogative ceased, did the
title devolve? The "Green
Mountain Boys," by con
ventions and committees,
and actual service in the
field, took their share in
the work of revolt, as a dis
tinctive people. In 1777
they declared themselves an
independent State, adopted
a Constitution, and elected
a Governor and other State
Scene in the Green Moi
80 FIRST YEARS OF PEACE. [CHAP. IV.
officers. Their right to political existence was precisely the same
as that of any of the late colonies, — the right of successful rebellion
and of successful self-government in the country they occupied and
were able to defend against all coiners.
Threatened by the public enemy on their northern border ; threat
ened in the possession of the homes they had made for themselves in
that rugged and inhospitable region ; frowned upon by Congress ;
seeing the face of no really earnest friend anywhere except in Massa
chusetts, the lot of the sturdy mountaineers, who from the beginning
had never swerved in their devotion to the American cause, was a
hard one. In 1780 a fresh appeal was made to Congress for admis
sion to the Union, declaring that, should it be still in vain, they
would propose to the other New England States and to New York,
" an alliance and confederation for mutual defence, independent of
Congress and of the other States." If neither Congress nor the
Northern States would listen to them, then, said the memorial,
"they are, if necessitated to it, at liberty to offer or accept terms of
cessation of hostilities with Great Britain without the approbation
of any other man or body of men . . . for she has not the most
distant motive to continue hostilities with Great Britain, and main
tain an important frontier for the benefit of the United States, and
for no other reward than the ungrateful one of being enslaved by
them."
The reception of the Vermont agents by Congress was unsatis
factory ; the proposal was made to the neighboring States for an
alliance, but this, of course, was unsuccessful. The Legislature of
New York, however, was so impressed with the seriousness of the
crisis as to be able to see that Vermont had justice on her side.
In February, 1781, the Senate of that State, with only a single dis
senting vote, proposed to recognize the independence of Vermont.
The House voted to take up the resolutions sent from the Senate,
when a message was received from Governor Clinton, which put an
end to the proceedings. The Governor threatened that it' the sub
ject were not dropped, ho would prorogue the Legislature.
Affairs put on presently a new and more serious aspect. In the
invasion spring a force of ten thousand men from Canada threatened
threatened. an jnvasion across the northern border. Washington could
not spare a man from his army, and New York and Vermont were
left to provide for their own defence. The panic was intense, and
the people of northern New York were preparing to abandon their
homes and fly before nn enemy whom there was not sufficient force
to resist. Vermont met the emergency by sending Ira Allen — a
brother of Ethan Allen — as a 'tommissioner t<D Isle aux Noix, in
1782.]
THE VERMONT QUESTION.
81
May, to meet commissioners from Canada. An armistice and an
exchange of prisoners were agreed upon, the temporary cessation of
hostilities including New York as well as Vermont.
This power Vermont assumed as an independent State ; but it had
more significance than the conclusion of a temporary peace. The
anomalous position of her people had been for some time an object
of interest to the British Government. Haldimand, Governor of
Canada, had written to Lord George Germaine, nearly two years
before, of the differences between Vermont and her neighbors, and
Germaine had replied that "much advantage might be derived'' from
that circumstance, should the hope be held out to them of being
made a separate province under the King.
In March, 1781, Beverley Hobinson, the refugee Colonel, wrote on
behalf of Sir Henry Clinton, to Ethan Allen, repeating
. . , ° Vermont
Germaine s suggestion, and urging the return of the people tempted to
i • ' • become a
or Vermont to their allegiance to the King, xso response British
was made to this letter by Allen, and in February of the
next year it was repeated, but with the suggestion, now changed into
a positive assurance, that the
reward of a revolt against the
Union into which Vermont
was not admitted, should be her
independence as a British prov
ince. The next month Allen,
after consultation with the Gov
ernor and others, sent both let
ters to the President of Con
gress. In April they were laid
before the General Assembly
of the State. Ira Allen went,
a month later, to meet Haldi-
mand's commissioners and ne
gotiate an armistice and cartel,
and then an earnest discussion
was held upon this subject.
Allen, at first, talked only of
neutrality, with the under
standing that when the war
was over, they would give their allegiance to the ruling power, who
ever it might be, on condition of receiving a free charter; but without
that, he said, — like his brother Ethan, he was prone " to wreak him
self upon expression," - — "they would return to the Mountains, turn
Savages, and fight the Devil, Hell, and Human Nature at large."
VOL. IV. 6
ernor George Clinton.
82 FIRST YEARS OF PEACE. [CHAP. IV.
"The conduct of the Vermontese," wrote General Schuyler to
Washington, about this time, " is mysterious." Dangerous conse
quences, he thought, might follow this intercourse with the enemy,
though he did not believe that the people generally understood it to
be anything else than a scheme to alarm New York and Congress,
that the independence of Vermont might be acknowledged. The
only way to end this unhappy condition of things, and to test the con
duct of the leaders, was to admit the State into the Union.
The mystery which Schuyler saw in the conduct of the Vermontese
has been a mystery ever since. The negotiations continued from
that time, and the question has been, and still is, whether the Aliens,
Chittenden, and their associates had any serious intention of becom
ing a British province, or whether they meant to deceive and amuse
the British, on the one hand, and alarm the Americans, on the other,
that they might secure their admission to the Union. The
Negotiations .
with the conclusion reached by many writers is, that, in the one case,
British. . .
their conduct was hardly that of honorable men, and, in the
other, that of men who were traitors to their country. But the more
obvious construction seems also the most rational : By right of revo
lution the country they occupied was their own ; if the war did not
secure independence to them, as it did to the colonies of the Union,
they reserved to themselves, as they frankly said, the right of choice
of sovereigns ; they preferred to be an independent province under
the Crown of Great Britain, rather than cease to be a province at all,
and become the subjects of a State they detested. The justification
of the revolt of the colonies was their justification. They prayed to
be a part of that Union which none believed in more firmly, or fought
for more earnestly ; if that was denied them, they meant to take the
next best thing, — a union with Great Britain rather than submis
sion to New York. They said this frankly, and they meant to
deceive nobody. They would have gladly accepted union
Their pur- "
pose ana re- at any moment witli the United States; they temporized
with Great Britain because they did not mean, except in
the last extremity, to be driven into her embraces. They restricted
their boundaries on the New Hampshire side for the sake of peace;
they gave up on the New York side, by order of Congress, territory
they had annexed. — no doubt injudiciously and wrongfully, but in
the hope of strengthening their position, — as both concessions were
required as the price of admission to the Union, though the promise
was not kept. And more than all, two indubitable facts testify to
the patriotism of the " Vermontese," and to the rightfulness of all
they contended for: When peace was declared, Vermont was not a
British province, though the State was not admitted to the Union
1782.] THE ARMY WAITING FOR PEACE. 83
till 1791 ; and her western boundary to-day is that which she main
tained in her struggle with New York, — twenty miles east of the
Hudson River.1
During the two years of negotiation and waiting for the final con
summation of peace between the allied powers, there were Waiting for
no general military operations. The distant rumbling, as peace"
of a retirino- storm, of Indian hostilities in the new settlements of the
C5
South and West, and of skirmishes with marauding parties in South
Carolina and Georgia, was the only indication in the clash of arms
that the long struggle was not yet quite finished. But the letters of
the Commander-in-chief during this period show how anxious and
dubious he was as to the prospect of a permanent peace, and whether
he might not be compelled to enter upon a new campaign with an
army smaller and more destitute than ever, and behind it a people
incapable, perhaps, of being aroused again to that height of enthu
siasm and devotion which had hitherto sustained them. Financial
difficulties continued to beset the Republic, whose paper money, both
national and state, had become almost absolutely worthless ; the in
dustry of the country was paralyzed ; commerce was almost annihi
lated ; large portions of the States, especially at the South, were
devastated ; poverty was universal ; and the revulsion of a long war
brought its own inevitable troubles.
Clinton was recalled soon after the surrender of Yorktown, and
Sir Guy Carleton arrived at New York to take his place. As Carle-
ton was much the better soldier, as well as abler man, his appoint
ment was not encouraging to the Americans in the event of a renewal
of hostilities. He not only continued to hold New York, but even
Savannah was not evacuated till the summer of 1782, nor Charleston
till the following December. It was impossible to disband the Amer
ican army in the presence of the enemy ; and while negotiations
dragged their slow length along at Paris, Washington, with his im
poverished and impatient troops at Newburgh, watched Carleton at
the mouth of the Hudson.
That an army half-starved, half-naked, without pay, and with noth
ing to do, should become also discontented and grow ripe for
r , . , . ™ . Condition
mischief, is not to be wondered at. llie wonder rather is, and temper
that evil should have been threatened only and not done ;
that men who had taken cities should be great enough, with arms
in their hands, to rule their own spirits, put aside their own wrongs
and many provocations, submit to the first command of discipline,
and listen to the first sober injunction of common sense and patriot-
1 See Collections of Vermont Hist. Soc., vols. i. arid ii., and Documents and Records relatim/
to New Hampshire, vol. x.
84
FIRST YEARS OF PEACE.
[CHAP. IV.
ism. Some of them knew almost no other government than military
rule ; they felt its strength in the creation of a nation, and the instru
ments of that achievement they held in their own hands. For such
civil government as there was, they had small respect ; for they saw
its imbecility in the long-suffering of years, in hunger, in nakedness,
in the poverty to which their own devotion to their country had
brought their wives and children at home. There was little promise
of future pensions in the long arrears of pay which Congress could
not, or — as they sometimes suspected — would not, discharge. If
their wrongs were ever to be righted, they felt that they must be
Headquarters at Newburgh.
righted by themselves, and righted now while it was in their power.
What reliance, they asked each other, can we have, when the army is
dissolved and we are scattered and helpless, upon the gratitude of a
country which, while we are together and powerful, denies us justice?
Justice was all that most of the men asked, though there were dem
agogues and mischief-makers among them who had quite other pur
poses. Greene hanged one of these in his camp, in South Carolina,
who stirred up a mutiny, one design of which was to kidnap the Gen
eral, and deliver him as a prisoner to the British in Charleston.1 P>ut
1 There is a tradition at Newburgh that a similar plan to capture Washington and
deliver him a prisoner at New York, was revealed to the Commander-in-chief by the
daughter of the man who made the attempt. It was frustrated by the warning given, and
the man was arrested, but permitted to leave the country, in kindness to his daughter
No soldier, however, was engaged in this conspiracy — if it ever existed.
1782.] CONDITION AND TEMPER OF THE ARMY. 85
no such desperate, measures were ever revealed in the army on the
Hudson. The troops would have followed Washington to Philadel
phia at a nod, and dispersed Congress, if their demands were not
acceded to ; but there was no insubordination, no wish to usurp
power and displace civil with military rule. There were some who
seem to have doubted the wisdom of attempting to establish a repub
lic ; but there is no evidence that they were many or very earnest in
that opinion.
One of these, a Colonel Lewis Nicola, a foreigner by birth and
education, a meritorious officer, esteemed by Washington,
• • on 111 i A moiiiirchy
wrote, in the spring of 1782, a remarkable letter to the proposed to
. . Washington.
General, in which it is alleged that he spoke for some others
as well as himself. The occasion, however, was one where conjec
ture was not in the least likely to fall short of the truth. Nicola
was alone responsible for the letter, and no great importance, perhaps,
would ever have attached to it, had it not been that Washington
thought it worthy of a signal rebuke. The wretched condition of
the country, and the distress and poverty of the troops, were the mov
ing cause of the appeal, and these were attributed to the imbecility
of government, — the fatal weakness inherent in republics. A mixed
government, it was argued, was more conducive to the happiness of
the people, and this might be established under that great chief who
had led the army in a successful war of eight years. In obedience
to popular prejudice, "it might not at first be prudent to assume the
title of royalty," but when " all other things were once adjusted, the
title of King" might be admitted. It was, Washington said, "with
a mixture of surprise and astonishment " that he read this letter ; no
occurrence during the war had given him more painful sensations
than the assurance that such ideas existed in the army, and he
viewed them with abhorrence and reprehended them with severity.
He conjured his friend to banish such thoughts from his mind, if
he had any regard for his country, concern for himself or his pos
terity, or respect for his chief. Had the movement, if it was im
portant enough to deserve that designation, been very much stronger
than it was, Washington's decisive and indignant reply would have
made an end of it.
The complaints of the army, however, were not silenced ; they
grew louder as the months wore on ; the men were still without pay,
and were not permitted to return to their homes ; violent outbreaks
were not nnfrequent among the least intelligent of the soldiers, and
many doubted whether they were not cruelly trifled with by conceal
ing from them the fact of the supposed conclusion of peace between
the two governments. They could not easily comprehend the nature
86 FIRST YEARS OF PEACE. [CHAP. IV.
and the necessity of the protracted negotiations carried on at Paris
and London.
But in the winter of 1782-83, the proposed redress of griev
ances assumed a more practical form than that presented in Colonel
Nicola's letter, and received the hearty approval of the Com-
mander-iu-chief. A memorial, assented to by the principal officers
of the army, as a calm and candid presentation of its claims
upon the Government, was taken to Congress by a committee of
three, — General McDougal, Colonel Ogden, and Colonel Brooks.
Immediate attention was given to it, and the friends of the army in
Congress probably did the best they could in a proposed adjustment
of arrears of pay, and the question of future pensions. But party
politics had too much weight even upon a question which should have
been settled upon the single principle of common justice. Neither
the thing done, therefore, nor the way of doing it, was satisfactory at
Newburgh, and affairs put on a more threatening aspect than ever.
The camp was a magazine, which needed only a torch, applied
at the right place and at the right moment, to produce a terrible
explosion.
The torch was lighted, but fortunately the strong hand was ready
to extinguish it on the instant. On the 10th of March an anony
mous notice was circulated, calling a meeting of the general
The " New- . &
burgh Ad- and field officers, a commissioned officer from each company,
and a delegate from the medical staff, to consider the late
action of Congress, " aiid what measures, if any, should be adopted to
obtain that redress of grievances which they seem to have solicited in
vain." With the notice was issued an address, — written, it was
found years afterward, by John Armstrong,1 then a Major and an
1 Gordon, in his History of the American Revolution (London, 1783) says of the ad
dresses that they were, " though anonymous, known since to have been drawn up by Major
Armstrong." For this information Gordon was indebted to General Gates, according to a
letter from Gates to Armstrong, published forty years afterward by Armstrong himself.
This letter is in a note in a review of Johnson's Life of Greene, published in The United
States Magazine of January, 1823, and, though unacknowledged, written — as we know
positively — by Armstrong. Johnson, in the Life of Greene, attributed to Gouverneur
Morris the authorship of the Newburgh Addresses, and the main point and object of Arm
strong's review was to deny this theory, and to show that they were written by himself,
— " Major Armstrong, a very young man (the aid-de-camp of General Gates), who, yielding
to the solicitations of his friends, in a few hours produced an address which was believed to
be peculiarly adapted to its purpose." In the chain of evidence on this point, there are
some statements that are inexplicable, and some that are irreconcilable ; and through it
all there is apparently a design to cover up the essential fact in regard to the actual origin
of the addresses by the substitution of another fact which reveals only half the truth. It
may be quite true that, as Gates says, and as he informed Gordon, "the letters were writ
ten in my quarters by you " [Armstrong] ; but it does not follow therefore, that they were
written — as Armstrong attempts to show — on the sudden impulse of the moment, nor
that there was not, behind the mere writing, some potent influence which inspired that
1782.] THE NEWBURGII ADDRESSES. 87
aid-de-camp of General Gates, — in which was discussed with much
ability and great warmth the condition of the army. " What,"
asked the writer, " have you to expect from peace when your voice
shall sink and your strength dissipate by division ; when those very
swords, the instruments and companions of your glory, shall be taken
from your sides, and no remaining mark of military distinction left but
your wants, infirmities, and scars ? Can you, then, consent to be the
only sufferers by this Revolution, and, retiring from the field, grow
old in poverty, wretchedness, and contempt ? Can you consent to
wade through the vile mire of despondency, and owe the miserable
remnant of that life to
charity which has hitherto
been spent in honor ? If
you can, go, and carry with
yOU the jest Of Tories and Signature of Armstrong.
the scorn of Whigs ; the ridicule, and, what is worse, the pity of the
world ! Go, starve, and be forgotten ! But if your spirits should
revolt at this .... awake, attend to your situation, and redress
yourselves ! If the present moment be lost, every future effort
is in vain ; and your threats then will be as empty as your entrea
ties now." And this was his counsel : " I would advise you, there
fore, to come to some final opinion upon what you can bear, and what
you will suffer. If your determination be in any proportion to your
wrongs, carry your appeal from the justice to the fears of govern
ment. Change the milk-and-water style of your last memorial."
And let that, he said, be not a memorial, but a i<p last remonstrance,"
and Congress should be told in this " that the slightest mark of
indignity now must operate like the grave, and part you forever ;
that in any political event, the army has its alternative. If peace,
that nothing shall separate you from your arms but death ; if war,
that courting the auspices, and inviting the direction of your illus
trious leader, you will retire to some unsettled country, smile in your
turn, and "mock when their fear cometh on.' '
It is not likely that Washington overrated the possible influence of
writing, dictated its tone, its terms, and its aim, and constituted the real authorship. To
assume tliis, it must be acknowledged, is to assume a great deal, is to put upon the whole
transaction a new face, involving an essentially new chapter in the history of that period.
But that Washington believed there was much more in the matter than met the eye, is
evident enough from his own letters ; and, indeed, his energetic conduct, the unusual
warmth of feeling displayed in his address to the meeting which he assembled, and the
importance he attached to the crisis which he felt called upon to meet in so unusual a man
ner, are hardly explicable on any other supposition. Any presentation of the subject, how
ever, on this side of it, would require an analysis of evidence, the citation and comparison
of contemporary writings, and the production of testimony, hitherto unpublished, which
the limits of this work forbid.
FIRST YEARS OF PEACE. [CHAP. IV.
words like these, appealing to the most violent passions of men al
ready inflamed to the point of desperation. It was an emergency to
be met by the promptest, but, at the same time, the most cautious
and judicious action. Any attempt at coercion was out of the ques
tion ; indeed, where was any instrument of coercion to be found ?
If his personal influence was not sufficient to control the army, there
could be little hope now of any moderate measures.
The day after the appearance of the call for the meeting and the
address, they were made the subject of general orders. The reputa
tion and true interest of the army, the Commander-in-chief said,
made it liis duty to avow " his disapprobation of such disorderly pro
ceedings," though he was " fully persuaded that the good sense of the
officers would induce them to pay very little attention to such an
irregular invitation." His reliance, nevertheless, was more upon his
own good sense than theirs ; for he asked that the representatives of
the army should assemble at his invitation on the following Saturday,
the 15th, instead of on that day, the llth, which the anonymous
call had named. The purpose of the writer of the address, and his
associate conspirators, was thus checkmated. The meeting of Tues
day was not held ; four days of calm consideration of the inflamma
tory appeal were secured, though its author made a weak attempt,
during those four days, to cover his own defeat by a second address, in
which he claimed that Washington's order was favorable, and meant
to be favorable, to the writer's purpose.
The army had only to wait till Saturday to know the truth. The
meeting was opened by Washington himself. In a calm but
Washington ° J
addresses forcible address, he answered every statement and appeal of
the army. J . .
the anonymous writer, and showed how unwise and intem
perate that counsel was which instigated a rebellion against Con
gress. " My God ! " he exclaimed, " what can this writer have in
view by recommending such measures ? Can he be a friend to the
army? Can he be a friend to this country ? Rather is he not an in
sidious foe? — some emissary, perhaps, from New York, plotting the
ruin of both by sowing the seeds of discord and separation between
the civil and military powers of the continent ? And what a compli
ment does he pay to our understandings, when he recommends meas
ures in either alternative impracticable in their nature ? " Then he
urged them to patience, to rely upon the justice of Congress ; he
pledged his own utmost exertions on their behalf, and begged them
to " give one more distinguished proof of unexampled patriotism and
patient virtue, rising superior to the pressure of the most compli
cated sufferings."
Washington retired when his speech was finished, and the meeting
WASHINGTON TAKING LEAVE OF HIS OFFICERS.
1782.] CESSATION OF HOSTILITIES. 89
then — Major-general Gates presiding as senior officer — passed a
series of resolutions, setting forth their own grievances, as had been
so often done before, but avowing their confidence in Congress, and
declaring that the army viewed with abhorrence and rejected with
disdain the infamous propositions of the anonymous address, and re
sented with indignation the attempts to collect the officers together
in a manner totally subversive of all discipline and good order. The
crisis was over ; nor was it among the least of the commanding Gen
eral's many victories that by his energy and prudence he saved the
country from a possible revolt that would have threatened its
existence.
Though general orders announced, a few days later, the cessation
of hostilities, and the news was received with almost ex- Cessationof
travagant demonstrations of joy by the army at Newburgh, hostilities-
there were months of weary delay before actual peace was de
clared and all the worn-out soldiers were permitted to return to
their homes. Many were discharged in the course of the summer
and autumn ; but the whole army was not disbanded till December.
The question of pay was not settled without much discussion and dis
appointment, but it gave rise to no further trouble, except in Phila
delphia, where a body of about eighty raw recruits mutinied, and took
possession of the State House. Congress adjourned to Princeton.
Fifteen hundred troops were ordered to march from the Hudson to
suppress this insurrection ; but before they reached Pennsylvania it
was ended.
On the 25th of November, New York was evacuated by the British,
Washington, with so much of his army as remained, and
ri f-\-\- -11 • -i rr> i-i o Evacuation
Governor Clinton, with the other civil officers of the State, of New
marching in to take possession. On the 4th of December,
a ceremony of less pomp, but involving far deeper feeling, took place
at Fraunces's Tavern, in Broad Street, where the Commander-in-chief
parted with his companions in arms. In October, he had taken
leave of his army in an affectionate address ; but the parting now was
from those officers, with many of whom he had been in the Farewen t0
most intimate personal as well as official relations. Such a thearmy-
separation could not be without great emotion on both sides. " I
cannot come to each of you," he said, after a few words of farewell,
" to take my leave, but shall be obliged if each of you will come and
take me by the hand." Not another word was spoken, — hardly was
another word possible at such a parting of such men. On the 23d of
the same month he returned his commission to Congress, then at An
napolis, in public session.
On the 3d of September, 17-83, the final treaty of peace was signed
90
FIRST YEARS OF PEACE.
[CHAP. IV.
at Paris, by which Great Britain acknowledged the United States to
be "free, sovereign, and independent."
The absence of a solid sovereignty in which the Commonwealths
Necessity for could rest, had long been a serious injury to the separate
union. States. Each had its own interior history, its institutions
modified if not produced by its own circumstances, and it was possi
ble for this individuality to assert itself finally in a petty sover
eignty. In the first Congress, Patrick Henry had expressed the
larger thought which was at work : " The distinctions between Arir-
ginians, Pennsylvanians, New Yorkers, and New Englanders are no
more. I am not a Virginian — I am an American." But this was
the inspiration of a great mind at a great moment. The
boundaries of the colonies still existed, and in the slow years
of the war, and slower years of the peace that followed, were more
sharply defined.
The treaty with
Great Britain
had fixed as the
limits of the Uni
ted States, the
Atlantic Ocean,
the Gulf of Mex
ico, the Missis
sippi River,1 and
the Great Lakes;
F 1 o r i d a being
excepted, as be
longing to Spain.
T he wester n
boundaries of the
Southern States,
d r a w 11 at the
great river, were
political bounda
ries only ; between that line and the scattered settlements which
reached out from the seacoast, there was a vast and almost unex
plored region. Pittsburg was an advanced military post. A trail
through the wilderness extended from Johnson's house on the Mo
hawk to the Great Lakes.
1 In tracing out this boundary, the Missouri was considered the main branch of the
Mississippi, and the line followed up that stream. But from lack of exploration about the
headwaters, there was confusion as to the northwest boundary, which in fact was undeter
mined. There was a similar confusion as to the northeastern boundary, which was not
settled till 1842.
Fraunces's Tavern.
1782.] THE NEW NATION. 91
The Southern States had somewhat over a million of inhabitants,
while the Middle States and New England divided equally between
them a million and a half. The three great States were Virginia,
with its 400,000 inhabitants, Pennsylvania and Massachusetts, each
with 350,000. But the character and influence of the three States
varied in accordance with the inherent differences in the character
of the people and their social and industrial systems. In Virginia
there was no single important centre; but large plantations, occupy
ing the broad lands in the middle and eastern portions, gave singular
importance to particular families. The Northern traveller, as he
moved southward, no longer saw contiguous villages and small, well-
cultivated farms along the road, but large, ill-built, isolated houses,
surrounded with groups of rude shanties or log-huts for the negro-
quarters. Within he found the rough hospitality of a people with
out neighbors, and with few intellectual resources to relieve the
tedium of their lives, living in the coarse plenty of the plantation,
self-confident in tone, and overbearing in manners from the constant
practice of petty tyranny over their helpless slaves. There were two
classes only, the very poor and the very rich. And already the soil of
the eastern counties of these slave States showed signs of exhaustion
under the excessive drain of the tobacco crop, and the planters were
heavily indebted to English capitalists and merchants. The war had
stayed the collection of these debts, but the fear lest their creditors
should force their claims through the General Government made the
planters suspicious of increasing in any way the powers of Congress.
Yet the half-feudal life in the Old Dominion and neighboring States,
and the absence of any pursuit save that of politics, gave their lead
ing men an undue influence in public affairs.
At the close of the war, Philadelphia was the chief city in the
country, its population of forty thousand being double that
of Boston, and more than three times that of New York.
It became the fashion, shortly after this date, to celebrate public
events by processions of tradesmen and mechanics, and in one such
pageant in Philadelphia, nearly fifty distinct trades were repre
sented ; companies existed for the better protection of the interests
of the trades, and a library had been founded fifty years before,
chiefly by this class. Upon the solid foundation of manufactures and
trade had been built a society living in comfort and ease, and the
social manners of the city marked it as the most agreeable on the
continent. New York was still paralyzed from the occupation by the
British and from the ravages of fire. New England, with its restless
population centering about seaports, was busy with ship-building and
with the coasting-trade, which extended to the West Indies, its best
92
FIRST YEARS OF PEACE.
[CHAP. IV.
market. The forests of Maine and New Hampshire sent vast quan
tities of lumber to the seaboard ; and Newport, Providence, and the
harbors on the Connecticut coast drove a thriving trade with the
Bahamas and Bermuda. On the return of peace the markets were
flooded with British goods, iind the courts were filled witli suits of
British creditors.
The policy which Great Britain had so long maintained, of regard
ing the colonial trade as existing only for her own benefit, could not
A New England Farmhouse — 1790.
at once be changed ; that country aimed at a monopoly of the trade
of the new States, and the Crown, authorized by Parliament, issued
commercial two proclamations, the first of which required the importa
tion of the produce of the United States to be committed
either to British vessels, or to vessels belonging to the particular State
of which the cargo was the produce; the second, with special reference
to the West Indies, prohibited American vessels or citizens from trad
ing to the British colonies. The effect was threefold : commercial
treaties with other nations were encouraged, the several States passed
1782.]
COMMERCIAL POLICY.
93
resolutions conferring large power on Congress, and local retaliatory
acts were passed, all tending to derange commercial relations and to
intensify the hatred of England. But the unequal operation of State
laws drove commerce from one port to another, and still further wi
dened the breach between the States. Maryland, by lower duties,
gained the commerce of Virginia. Madison had been suspicious of a
proposed measure of Hamilton's, that it would inure to the benefit
of the Eastern States ; but those States themselves drove away com-
A Planter's Residence — 1790.
merce by retaliatory regulations. The remedies proposed, while look
ing sometimes to closer alliances with neighboring States, were all in
the direction of conflict of interests throughout the Union ; commer
cial leagues were formed between New Jersey and Pennsylvania, be
tween Virginia and Maryland, and a competition sprang up for secur
ing trade by the reduction of duties.
All the while the balance of trade against the country was
rapidly increasing. Within two years after peace was declared, the
value of goods imported from England into the United States was
94
FIRST YEARS OF PEACE.
[CHAP. IV.
not far from thirty million dollars, while the exports during the
same time were only between eight and nine millions. This great
influx of goods crushed the feeble manufactories which had been
started during the war, and drew off nearly all of the specie which
still remained behind the great volume of depreciated paper money.
There was no mint, and the States as well as Congress issued
money. In April, 1783, the debt of the United States was esti
mated at $42,000,000, and that of the separate States at 820,000,000.
A Lumbering Scene.
Congress vainly implored the States to provide the means for meet
ing its debts. England held by her policy of monopoly, and more
over made the difficulty of collecting debts due from American mer
chants to her citizens a further excuse for delaying compliance with
the provision of the treaty of peace which called for the evacuation
of the frontier posts. The disorganized state of the country aroused
a belief in England that the restoration of the colonies to Great
Britain was not impossible.
Congress was already making use of the public lands for settling
1786.] WEAKNESS OF CONGRESS.
the claims of its creditors, and among these creditors the soldiers of
the late army held preference. A movement at once began, which
for a hundred years has been changing the face of the country. Wash
ington held lands in the West, and made a journey toward the more
remote of his possessions, his mind full of schemes which took shape
in the Potomac and James River companies. Timothy Pickering, who
had thought of buying wild lands in Vermont, was tempted rather by
the reports of the fertile fields of Ohio, and in company with many
officers of the army, devised a plan for the formation of a new State
west of the Ohio River, — '• the total exclusion of slavery from the
State to form an essential and irrevocable part of the Con
stitution." The plan formed by that company of officers in nance of
camp at Newburgh, though crude and incomplete, was one
of the earliest steps in that series of popular and legislative acts which
issued finally in the Ordinance of 1787.
The one political institution which claimed to hold the country
together — the Congress of Delegates — was losing its power Weakne.«s of
and reputation with astonishing celerity.1 "• Is it not among Congress-
the most unaccountable things in nature," wrote Washington to
Grayson, July 26, 1786, " that the representation of a great country
should generally be so thin as not to be able to execute the functions
of government?" Congress was frequently compelled to adjourn
for want of a quorum. The States, in their jealousy of one another,
dreaded a phantom power in Congress, and exercised their ingenuity
in sending their delegates instructions which repeatedly blocked the
measures of the General Government.
Jefferson had been sent as Commissioner to France, John Adams
as Minister to England in 1786, and the relations with Spain Foreignre.
were negotiated by Jay, the new Secretary of Foreign Af- latlons-
fairs at home. Jefferson was impeded by his own free-trade theories,
and by his disagreement with Congress ; Jay was embarrassed by the
claims of Spain to control the navigation of the Mississippi: Adams
had to contend against the obvious failure of separate States to ob
serve the terms of the treaty of peace. The imbecility of Congress,
joined to the determination of England to maintain her monopoly
of the sea, made it seem impossible for Adams to make any headway
in negotiating a commercial treaty. The United States acquired 110
1 The president of Congress, Richard Henry Lee, wrote to Samuel Adams, under date
of November 18, 1784 : " It is now eighteen days since Congress ought to have assembled
here [Trenton], and as yet we have but five States ; and it surprises me that these five are
southern; none but the wortliv Dr. Holton, from your State, being yet arrived from the
eastward, whence formerly we used to derive much punctuality, alacrity, and judicious
despatch of public business. And yet there are many subjects of great importance, that
demand the speedy, temperate, wise, aud firm discussion of Congress."
96
FIRST YEARS OF PEACE.
[CHAP. IV.
Intvriiitl
troubles.
respect as a nation. " The most remarkable thing," wrote Adams,
"• in the King's speech and the debates is, that the King and every
member of each house has entirely forgotten that there is any such
place upon the earth as the United States of America. We appear
to be considered as of no consequence at all in the scale of the
world." Washington summed up the situation a few months later,
when he wrote: "Without them [i.e., adequate powers] we stand
in a ridiculous point of view in the eyes of the nations of the world,
with whom we are attempting to enter into commercial treaties,
without the means of carrying them into effect, who must see and
feel that the Union, or the States individually, are sovereigns, as
best suits their purposes ; in a word, that we are one nation to-day,
and thirteen to-morrow."
The dangers at home were even greater. Not only were the States
arrayed against Congress whenever their local interests
seemed in jeopardy, but popular conventions and neighbor
hood meetings began to arrogate authority. " Bodies of men," wrote
Samuel Adams in April,
1784, '-under any denom
ination whatever, who
convene themselves with
a design to deliberate up
on and adopt measures
which are cognizable by
legislatures only, will, if
The Franklin Penny -First United States Coin. COllthmed, SOO11 bring leg-
islatures to contempt and dissolution." Washington again, in 1786,
wrote with warning to his nephew Bushrod against societies formed
in Virginia for the indirect management of public affairs : " Socie
ties, nearly similar to such as you speak of, have lately been formed
in Massachusetts ; but what has been the consequence ? Why, they
have declared the Senate useless, many other parts of the Constitu
tion unnecessary, salaries of public officers burthensome, etc. To
point out the defects of the Constitution, if any existed, in a decent
way, was proper enough ; but they have done more. They first vote
the courts of justice, in the present circumstance of the State, oppres
sive, and next, by violence, stop them, which lias occasioned a very
solemn proclamation and appeal from the Governor to the people.
You may say no such matters are in contemplation by your society.
Granted. A snow-ball gathers by rolling." The power issuing from
the people was being reclaimed by them individually, from lack of a
supreme authority in which the incomplete fragments of the state
could rest.
1786.]
INTERNAL TROUBLES.
97
Dollar of 1794.
The indications of this extreme logic of local sovereignty were
many and frequent. When the authority of the Government was
weakened over the old States, it was to be expected that the frontier
would show more open independence. In the Wyoming country of
Pennsylvania there had been a long-continued dispute between the
Pennsylvania Government and that of Connecticut, which had sent
emigrants to occupy the wilderness. The boundaries and respect
ive rights of the States were open questions then ; but it was finally
settled that the Wyoming country was under Pennsylvania's juris
diction. There
upon the State
claimed that the
settlers from
Connecticut
could hold their
lands only under
fresh titles. The
settlers, well
used by long con
troversy to a re
bellious attitude, took up arms and resolved to form a new State, but
were suppressed as rioters.
The western counties of North Carolina set up an independent
Government, organizing themselves into the State of Frank-
Quarrels
land. There arose at once a local quarrel. The portion over new
TT« • • i • i e 11 T- t States.
ot Virginia which afterwards became Kentucky set up
similar claims to independence. Maine, a province of Massachu
setts, struggled for a separate government, and finally in Massa
chusetts the disorganizing and rebellious elements broke out into
formal and armed insurrection. The accumulation of debts shays's Re-
rendered the courts of justice, in the minds of many, mere b
" engines of destruction ; '? the increasing distress in private affairs,
the depression in commerce, and the burden of Federal taxation,
swelled the popular discontent. The old methods of opposition to
British tyranny were resumed in this new opposition to what was
imagined to be Federal tyranny. Local conventions were held, and
committees formed, and the movement was spreading into the neigh
boring States.1 Congress ordered troops to be raised, pretending
1 " The number of these people amounts in Massachusetts to about oue fifth part of
several populous counties, and to them may be collected people of similar sentiments from
the States of Rhode Island, Connecticut, and New Hampshire, so as to constitute a body
of about twelve or fifteen thousand desperate and unprincipled men. They are chiefly of
the young and active part of the community." — Knox to Washington, in Writings of
Washington, ix., 207.
voi,. iv. 7
98
FIRST YEARS OF PEACE.
[CHAI>. IV.
that they were for service against the Northwestern Indians. Fortu
nately the Government of Massachusetts had a man of force at its
head in Governor Bowdoin. At Worcester and at Springfield an
A Scene in Shays's Rebellion,
attempt was made to prevent the sitting of the Courts, and at the
latter place was ludicrously unsuccessful.1 Here also the insurgents
1 " Previous to Shays appearing at the head of an armed mob, so called, an attempt was
made to stop the courts of justice. A court was to be held at Springfield ; a few warm
partisans had assembled about the court-house, iu plain sight of the old brick school-house,
where I attended school, and from my windows saw all that was going on. Mr. Sheriff
Porter, with his insignia of office and side-arms, preceded the judges ; and when the Sheriff
came to the door-steps, which had been taken possession of by the mobility, he sung out at
the top of his voice, 'Clear the way for the court ! ' But the party in possession did not
budge an inch, until the Sheriff drew forth his glittering sword and made several bold and
cutting thrusts upon the naked air. At this moment a young man full of y.eal stepped for
ward, seized the leader by the collar, and drew him forth. The others gave way, the court
entered, opened, and closed in due form, Oi/cs! The two persons clenched each other,
rough and tumble, and both rolled into the brook, which passed under the court-house. T
had looked on with intense interest, but could no longer resist the impulse, but sung out,
'Master, they are at it!1 detaching my hat from the peg, without leave or license, and
1786.] MOVEMENT TOWARD UNION. 99
threatened the arsenal, under the lead of Daniel Shays, who had been
a captain in the Continental army. The State militia, under General
Lincoln, drove the rebels from Springfield to Petersham, and finally
dispersed them. At Exeter, N. H., t\vo hundred armed men had as
sailed the Assembly and demanded the emission of paper money as
a relief from unendurable burdens. They held the legislative cham
ber for a day, but gave way at the appearance of formidable oppo
sition.
That the difficulties of the country sprang from the lack of a close
and authoritative union in which all the members could rest, was
forced upon the mi nils of men. At a meeting of commissioners from
Maryland and Virginia, at Alexandria, for the purpose of
Movement
regulating the navigation of the Chesapeake and the Poto- toward
mac, a convention of the States was suggested. Five States
sent commissioners to Annapolis in September, 1786. Alexander
Hamilton, \\lio had foreseen this necessity six years before, proposed
a national convention to meet at Philadelphia in May, 1787, "• to take
into consideration the situation of the United States, to devise such
further provision as shall appear to them necessary to render the
constitution of the federal government adequate to the exigencies of
the Union, and to report such an act for that purpose to the United
States in Congress assembled, as, when agreed to by them, and after
wards confirmed by the legislature of every State, will effectually pro
vide for the same.'' ] A memorial signed by Governor Dickinson,
chairman of the meeting, was addressed to the legislatures represented
by the Commissioners. Virginia at once responded in a grave and
noble address, which recognized the crisis and accepted the proposed
measure. New Jersey, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, and Delaware
followed. In Congress the party which feared the consolidation of
power was in the ascendancy ; but it finally assented to a conven
tion, provided it confined itself to "the sole and express purpose
of revising the articles of Confederation." Delegates were elected
from the other States, except Rhode Island, and the instructions
given, or the character of the men elected, foreshadowed, in some
degree, the probable result of the important labor on which they
were about to enter.
rushed out of the school to see the whole fun and mingle with the crowd. The master ami
whole posse of urchins soon followed." — Daniel Stebbins, in the American Pioneer, i., 385.
1 J. C. Hamilton's Life of Alexander Hamilton, iii., 166.
CHAPTER V.
UNDER THE CONSTITUTION.
ADOPTION OF THE CONSTITUTION. — INAUGURATION OF WASHINGTON. — MANNERS or
THE TIMES. — ADJUSTMENT OF PUBLIC DEHTS. — GROWTH OF POLITICAL PARTIES
— THE NATIONAL BANK. — PROTECTIVE TARIFF. — CULTIVATION OF COTTON.—
CONSTITUTIONAL COMPROMISE WITH SLAVERY. — GENERAL EDUCATION. — WEST
WARD EMIGRATION. — DEFEAT OF HARMAR AND ST. CLAIR. — WAYNE'S CAMPAIGN
AGAINST THE INDIANS. TlIB WlIISKEY INSURRECTION. 1'liIEs's INSURRECTION.
— HAMILTON AND JEFFERSON. — FRENCH INFLUENCE. — GENET. — JAY'S TREATY.
— POPULAR DISSATISFACTION WITH IT.
THE Convention met at Philadelphia, on the 14th of May, 1787,
adjourned from day to day until enough delegates were present for or
ganization, and began
to Avork on the 2otli
day of the
same
month. It met in the
chamber where the
Declaration of Inde
pendence had been
signed. The chair
which had been fdled
by Peyton Randolph,
Avhen Johnson of
Maryland had nom
inated the Coin-
mander-in-Chief of
the army in 17 7<! ; by
John Hancock, Avhen presiding over the Continental Congress Avhich
affirmed the independence of the States ; and by Henry
Lauren s, Avhen the Articles of Confederation Avere signed,
Avas taken now by the delegate from Virginia, George
Washington. Many of these men assembled in Independence Hall
had been members of the old Continental Congress or of succeeding
ones. Those who had achieved independence Avere still leaders of pub
lic opinion. Langdon, Gerry, Sherman, Franklin, Morris, Clymer,
The President's Chair
A conven
tion of the
States.
1787.] A CONVENTION OF THE STATES. 101
Wilson, Read, Wythe, Dickinson, Daniel Carroll, were in this Con
vention. With these were others of national note, including two
young men who were to have preeminence in the councils of the na
tion — Alexander Hamilton and James Madison.
The members represented two unformed parties ; yet as the Con
stitution slowly issued out of the contest of debate, the very names
by which these parties were called seemed finally to be transposed.
The rules of the body having been determined, including one enjoining
secrecy, and one giving a vote to each State, Randolph of Virginia
submitted fifteen resolutions, proposing a national legislature of two
branches, a national executive, and a national judiciary embracing
grades of courts. Pinckney of South Carolina brought in a similar
but more elaborate plan. Both plans were discussed in committee
of the whole. The Virginia plan, as it was called, gathered The virgillia
to itself those in favor of the national government. Its fun- plan'
damental proposition was finally embodied in the first resolution
adopted : kk Resolved, that it is the opinion of this Committee that
a national government ought to be established, consisting of a supreme
Legislative, Judiciary, and Executive." The debate was chiefly upon
two points, — the power of the General Government to coerce the
States, and that representation in Congress should be proportioned to
population. The one gave Congress an unquestioned supremacy ;
the other referred all power directly to the people.
The resolutions were re-committed to the Convention on the 13th
of June. Two days later Patterson of New Jersey presented The Jerscy
resolutions of the minority. They maintained that the Con- plan-
vention was only to revise the Articles of Confederation in accordance
with the call of Congress ; hence the Jersey plan, as it was called,
contemplated the enlargement of the powers of Congress, without any
radical change in the principles of the Confederation, recognizing the
States as both equal to each other and superior to the Confederation.
Those who supported this plan were at first called the Federal
party, favoring a federal or league government ; the supporters of the
Virginia plan were known as Anti-federalists. Patterson's resolutions
were referred to the committee of the whole, and at once Rutledge,
seconded by Hamilton, moved a recommitment of the Virginia reso
lutions which had been adopted by the Convention, so that the two
plans might be placed on an equal footing. The Virginia resolutions,
by being first on the floor, had the advantage at the start. The op
ponents could now rally about an equally concrete plan. The larger
States naturally favored the first, which based representation upon
population ; the smaller favored the other, which gave but one house
and an equality of power to the States, irrespective of population.
102
UNDER THE CONSTITUTION.
[CHAP. V.
Hamilton brought in a proposition of his own, which went beyond
the Virginia resolutions in providing for a centralized power, rather
as a well-defined criticism of those plans which were before the Con
vention than as an independent system. Back of all the discussions
lay the consideration that if the work of the Convention should be
accepted, it would not be as the triumph of a party, but as the adjust
ment of practical difficulties, the very existence of which had called
(he Convention into existence. When the Constitution should be
presented to the States for ratification, the question would turn
upon its principles, not upon any abstract consideration of the power
of the convention framing- it. Hence the great questions which divided
the Convention were settled,
not by forcing the will of
the majority, which would
have been only a ban-en vic
tory of debate, but by the dis
covery of a common ground
which should give a practical
trial to the controversy at
issue. By giving the States
an equal representation in
m--- tne Senate, and assenting to
Ik the f:ltal compromise of per-
mitting three fifths of the
slaves to be counted in form
ing the basis of popular rep
resentation in the House,
the Convention transferred
the questions which agitated
them to other arenas and to
later days. It accomplished
its work of providing a bond of union under which, if the people
accepted it, the whole country might organize and present a single
front to the world.
On Monday, the 17th of September, 1787. the Constitution, finally
agreed upon, was signed by the delegates — Gerry of Mas
sachusetts, and Edmund Randolph and Mason of Virginia.
alone withholding their signatures — and submitted to Congress, which
in turn called upon the States in separate, conventions to act upon the
instrument, the acceptance of nine States being requisite before it could
be declared adopted. The debates, which had been secret, were now
renewed, not only in the several State conventions but in the public
press and by every fireside. The discussions of the winter of 1787-88
Alexander Hamilton.
17*8.] ADOPTION OF THE CONSTITUTION. 103
were the political education of Americans. The series of papers
which have been collected under the title of -k The Federalist " present
the defence of the Constitution by those who had most to do with its
formation. The name, which now became the name of the party
maintaining national as distinguished from confederate principles,
indicates, in spite of its anomalous application, the spirit of the domi
nant party. The contest was over the necessity of a strong central
government ; and those who thought this the paramount need of the
country took the name of Federalists as the distinction between them
selves and those who would have made State authority supreme. As
the positive, aggressive, and structural party, they threw upon the
opposition the necessity of accepting the negative title of Anti-federal
ists, a name which was accepted unwillingly, and finally left behind
when those who had borne it found themselves in power.
The opposition to the Constitution was mainly in the large States.
In the smaller States it was quickly seen that their only hope of se
curity was in a general government so defined that the assumption
of undue power by the larger States would be restrained by the
Constitution and the laws. Various conventions tried hard to evade
the naked issue, and to put limitations upon their consent. North
Carolina drew up amendments, and made her assent conditional
upon their acceptance ; Massachusetts, giving a bare majority, strongly
recommended certain amendments, and other States followed her ex
ample. ( hie by one the States fell into line, until on the 21st of
June, 17(S8, New Hampshire, the ninth State, ratified the Constitu
tion. Two conventions were still in session at that date in the im
portant States of Virginia and New York. When on the 25th of the
same month Virginia ratified, it was under the supposition that her
vote had finally decided the result. The vote was not reached with
out a hard struggle. The ratification was carried by a majority of
only ten in a convention of one hundred and sixty-eight, and was
hampered with several proposed amendments and a bill of rights.
The New York Convention was in session at Poughkeepsie while
Congress was sitting in New York. But all interest centred about
the Convention. The important geographical position of the State,
and the dawning commercial greatness of her chief port, made her
decision of the utmost importance. The opponents of ratification,
ably led by Clinton and Lansing and Smith, fought bitterly to the
last. Against them stood Alexander Hamilton, and behind him
was a strong popular opinion. The unceasing activity of Hamilton,
and his persuasive eloquence, gave the contest a dramatic interest.
The opposition yielded inch by inch, taking its stand finally on a.
conditional acceptance. There the last struggle came, and a major-
104
UNDER THE CONSTITUTION.
[CHAP. V.
ity of two was given in favor of the Constitution. The final decision
was reached on the 25th of July, when the Constitution was ratified
by a vote of thirty to twenty-seven. The man who at the age of
thirty-one had achieved this victory, returned to his seat in Congress
in New York, and presented the result of the Convention's work. Dur
ing the last days of the Convention the city had been in a tumult of
apprehension and anticipation ;
upon the receipt of the news, it
broke out into clamorous rejoic
ings, and on the return of Hamil
ton a great festival was held.
The ratification was celebrated
by a joyous procession of traders,
merchants, artisans, and profes
sional men, in which banners bore
the mingled names of Washington
Celebrating the Adoption of the Constitution.
and Hamilton, while the Federal ship
Hamilton, a frigate fully manned, was
borne on wheels, its cannon saluting and receiving salutes through
out the course of the pageant.
The first Congress assembled in New York on the 4th of March,
"1789, but it was a month before a quorum could be ol>-
tained, and the government was not fairly organized until
the 30th of April. The votes of the presidential electors
had been counted, and the unanimous first choice was for George
washin
1789.] INAUGURATION OF WASHINGTON. 105
Washington. Of the other candidates, John Adams received the
largest number, thirty-four out of sixty-nine, and was declared Vice-
president. Washington was notified of his election by a special
messenger sent by the President of the Senate, and two days later
he set out for the seat of government.1 His journey to New York
was through files, as it were, of uncovered heads, and when, on the
O
30th of April, he took the oath of office upon the balcony of the hall
in which Congress was assembled, the vast concourse before him
maintained a religious silence. Services had been held in all the
O
churches of the city, and after the delivery of his inaugural speech,
the President went on foot to St. Paul's Church, where prayers were
read by Bishop Provoost. In the evening the city was brilliant with
illuminations and fireworks.
The work which most needed to be done pertained immediately
to the office of the Secretary of the Treasury. Hamilton, Hamilton <*
strongly recommended by Morris, and proved by his own th"rreas-°f
essays to be the fit man for the place, was appointed to ""'•
the office, and his extraordinary administrative power was at once
employed in organizing the department with such completeness of
detail that subsequent officers have never found it necessary to mod
ify his plans in any essential particular. An incredible number of
minor affairs were submitted to the Secretary by Congress, or intro
duced by his own fertile brain, — as the sale of public lands, naviga
tion laws, regulation of the coasting trade, the purchase of West
Point, establishment of revenue cutters, number and condition of
light-houses, petitions for claim and relief, plans for collecting the
revenue, and various legal questions growing out of the hitherto con
fused relations of government and people.
The great question of the day, however, was that suggested by res
olutions of the House of Representatives, passed September 21, 1789,
ten days after Hamilton received his commission, in which he was
called upon to report such measures as he should deem expedient for
providing for the national debt and sustaining the public credit. The
debt of the Confederation, including the interest arrears, amounted to
fifty-four millions ; the debts of the States, incurred for
. -,-, Improve-
general objects, amounted to twenty-six millions. Between mcntm
... . . finances.
January and .November, 17oy, the public securities rose
thirty-three per cent., and by the beginning of 1790, when Hamil-
1 On the day of his departure he wrote in his Diary : " About ten o'clock I bade adieu
to Mount Vernon, to private life, and to domestic felicity ; and, with a mind oppressed
with more anxious and painful sensations than I have words to express, set out for New
York in company with Mr. Thompson and Colonel Humphreys, with the best disposition
to render service to my country in obedience to its call, but with less hope of answering its
expectations."
V
10<5 UNDER THE CONSTITUTION. [CHAP. V.
ton made his report, advanced still higher. The means which he
proposed was, briefly, to fund the entire debt, issuing new certificates.
The whole principle of Hamilton's measure was an emphatic notice
to the world that the new Federal Government was the organic suc
cessor of the old confederation, assuming all its obligations and pro
viding, as that could not, for their discharge.
The most important branch of the subject was the assumption of
the State debts. Again the two great parties divided upon this ques-
tion. Hamilton and those who thought with him were in favor
of their assumption. The opposition, acting upon various grounds,
but resting finally upon State supremacy, maintained a solid front
not easily secured on any less vital point. They understood the im
mense cohesive power which lay in the assumption.1 The Federal
1'oiiticai Pai'ty was ni the minority ; but as the special upholder of
the new Government it was the more forcible and deter
mined. The Anti-federal party was in the majority ; when it could
act in concert it could defeat the measures of the minority ; but the
very con-
stitlltion
ofthepar-
tv as the
Signature of Richard Henry Lee.
aggregate
of representatives of various local interests, made it lack cohesion.
But the lines of party were not yet firmly fixed. Madison, for in
stance, who had been one of the principal writers in the "Federalist,"
was a leader now among those opposed to assumption. The question
at issue was seen by Hamilton to be vital. He was once defeated,
but gained success by a political manoeuvre. Men who opposed as
sumption were still more eager to secure certain local ends. The
question of the seat of national government was one appealing to
some of these men with great force — especially to the Virginians ;
and Virginia, having a greatly reduced State debt, was opposed to
assumption. White and Lee, from that State, under Hamilton's in
fluence, changed their votes in consideration that Hamilton and Rob
ert Morris should use their influence to secure the establishment of
the capital upon the banks of the Potomac. P>y this bargain, Ham
ilton gained his point.
In 1791, Hamilton carried another measure for the relief of govern
ment from financial embarrassment. Then; were at the time but
1 " A greater thought than this of assumption," .said Stone, of Maryland, an Anti-feder
alist, " had never been devised by man, and if put into execution, would prove to the Fed
eral Government a wall of adamant, impregnable to any attempt on its fabric or opera
tions."
1791.] THE BANK AND THE TARIFF. 107
three banks in the country — one in Philadelphia, one in New York,
and one in Boston. These were all State institutions. He TheNation.
recommended the establishment of a bank which, under al bank
private direction, was yet to serve the Government, by making' it
owner of one fifth of the capital stock of ten million dollars, and a
preferred borrower to the same amount. The subscriptions were to
be paid, one quarter in gold and silver coin, three quarters in the six-
per-cent. certificates of the national debt. This measure was also
the signal for fresh antagonism between the two nascent parties, but
the division took place mainly upon sectional grounds; the planting
States opposing it, the commercial States favoring it, and gaining the
point. The establishment of the bank gave occasion for a remark
able evidence of the strengthening of public credit; for the wrhole
number of shares offered was taken up in two hours.
The borrowing of money, however, could be but a temporary ex
pedient ; it was necessary to make provision for permanent protective
means of support. The adoption of the Constitution made tanff'
a uniform tariff possible, and one of the first acts of Congress was to
pass a, tariff bill. The measure was necessarily temporary, and it
was not until 1791 that Hamilton made his great report upon manu
factures, in which he took ground distinctly in favor of a system of
protection as the only one he thought possible in that stage of na
tional life and in the condition then of the civilized world.
He proposed the exemption of the materials of manufacture from
duties, prohibition of rival articles, and other methods which taken
together were to comprise kl> one great American System, superior to
the control of transatlantic force or influence, and able to dictate the
connection between the Old and New World." l A bill embodying
the recommendations of this report was passed February 9,17^2.
The power of a sovereign state was also exercised in the coining of
money, and a mint was established. A bill had also passed, impos
ing a duty upon imported and domestic spirits, for the purpose of
bringing the revenue up to the required point.
There were circumstances in the times which gave a great impetus
to American enterprise. The French Government, in 1787,
issued a decree placing American citizens commercially on
the same footing with Frenchmen, and admitting American produce*
free of duty ; and as France had a free-trade treaty with England,
this act practically nullified British hostility to American commerce.
Then upon the breaking out of war between France and England,
the carrying trade of the world fell into the hands of the United
States, and an immense stimulus was given to the exportation of
1 Report of the Secretary of the Treasury of the United States on the Subject of Manufactures,
presented to the House of Representatives.
108
UNDER TUP: CONSTITUTION.
[CHAP. V.
American produce. The trade with the West Indies, which England
had manoeuvered to keep in her own hands, became almost wholly
American. French ships could not safely trade there, Spanish trade
was carried on under a neutral flag, and even English merchants
found it safer to employ American bottoms. At this time arose
also those great commercial houses which sought out and held the
China and East Indian trade, and American commerce nurtured a
bold and hardy race of seamen who united mercantile sagacity with
courage, honesty, and enterprise.1
During this period one industry received an extraordinary and
momentous i m p e t u s. The ex
port of cotton in 1792 was only
138,328 pounds: in 1795 it hail
risen to (>,276,300. So little at
tention did this export attract,
however, that neither Jay nor the
English ministers with whom he
negotiated his treaty in 1794, re
membered that cotton was a prod
uct of the United States. This
is the more remarkable, inasmuch
as its culture had long been nur
tured in the Southern States.
Nearly twenty years before, the
State of South Carolina had giv
en to one of her citizens a reward
of two hundred pounds for in
venting a cotton card, and official
measures were taken to bring it
into use.2 Whitney invented the
cotton-gin in 1793, and from that moment the question of slavery
assumed an importance which was to make it paramount to all others
for the next seventy years.
1 A view of tlic exports of the country shows a steady increase from $19,012,041 in 1791,
to $67,0(54,097 in 1 796. They fell off the next year, to increase again in 1798. The fisheries,
which had suffered during the war and had not recovered in 1790, revived again under the
impulse of a special bounty and the resumption of trade.
'•* The following report is from the original manuscript, in the possession of Samuel Wilde,
Esq., of New York : —
" IN THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY,
the 22rf day of August, 1777.
" Report of the Committee to whom the Petition of Thomas Lenoir was referred, as
amended and agreed to by the House.
" That they have considered the Petition of Mr. Lenoir, and have had sufficient evidence
to convince your committee that the said Petitioner is qualified to carry on the business
The Cotton Plant.
1783.] COMPROMISE WITH SLAVERY. 109
The continued existence of slavery was one of the most difficult
questions of settlement and compromise in the formation
and adoption of the Federal Constitution. The Convention
hoped it had been put to rest forever by securing the termination of
the slave trade in 1808. Opposition to that trade and to slavery was
with many, and especially the Friends, a religious conviction. In the
first year of the new government petitions were sent in from mem
bers of that society in Pennsylvania, Delaware, and New Jersey, ask
ing for its abolition. One from a Delaware Quaker, Warner MirHin,
for the abolition of slavery, was returned to the petitioner.1 The
ground was generally taken, however, that Congress had no power
over slavery in the States. In the Territories, indeed, it had power,
and it exercised it with geographical distinctions.
In 1783, the several States claiming the right of domain in the re
gion northwest of the Ohio River ceded those claims to the United
States, and in March, 1784, a committee was appointed by Congress,
with Jefferson as chairman, to report a plan for its government.2 By
that plan, slavery was prohibited, but not till the year 1800. This
was Jefferson's famous Ordinance, for which so much credit has been
awarded him ; but fortunately this portion of it relating to slavery
was defeated for want of Southern votes. Had the slaveholders
been wise enough to accept it, and maintained the right of posses
sion from 1784 to 1800, there can hardly be a doubt that the move
ment of half-a-dozen years later, led by William Henry Harrison,
both of drawing the wire and making- as good wool and cotton cards as are usually im
ported into this State, and do therefore recommend that the sum of Two hundred
Pounds he immediately given to Mr. Lenoir, as a reward, he being the first Person that
has begun that business, and a farther sum of Eight hundred pounds advanced bim on
his giving an obligation to deliver to Joseph Kershaw, Esquire, at Camdcn, and in case of his
death or absence from the State, to such Person an mat/ be appointed by the President for the
time being to receive the same, to be sold on account of the public, after giving twenty days Pub
lic notice of such Sale, Forty pair of good cotton cards at the end of one year, and forty pair
e</willi/ f/ood at the end of the second Year, proved upon oath to have been all manufactured by
tlie said Thomas Lenoir within this State.
" Ordered, That the Commissioners of the Treasury be served with a copy of the fore
going Report, and that they advance the sums of money and take the obligation therein
mentioned. " By order of the House. THO. BKE, Speaker."
" Received, August 22, 1777, from the Com'srs of the Treasury, One Thousand Pounds
of the within Resolution of the Gen. Assembly. " THOS. LENOIK."
1 "As I do feel alarmed," — s;iid Mifflin in commenting on the refusal to receive his
petition, — " when I consider that the solemn professions so lately made in time of extrem
ity and danger, and held up as the national faith, should so soon on this important occa
sion seem to be regarded as mere tricks of State, what can be thought will be the issue 1
May it not be considered as trifling with omnipotence ? " — A Serious Expostulation with the
Members of the House of Representatives of the United States.
2 The Ordinance reported provided that the States into which the region was to be
eventually divided should have the fanciful names of Sylvania, Michigania, Chersonesus,
Assenisipia, Mesopotamia, Illinoia, Saratoga, Washington, Polypotamia, and Pelcsipia.
110 UNDER THE CONSTITUTION. [CHAI-. V.
to make Illinois and Indiana slave States, would have been success
ful.
But by the Ordinance of 1787, all -the territory northwest of the
Ohio, then belonging to the United States, and comprising the pres
ent States of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, and Wisconsin, was
saved for free men and free labor by the interdiction of slavery then
and forever. It was expected that this western country would be
settled by emigrants from the Northern States, and millions of acres
were bought for that purpose by a Massachusetts Land Company,
and others, at the time of the passage of the Ordinance. It was
probably for this reason that the Constitution and laws of Massachu
setts were made the basis of the Ordinance, and the work of framing
it was intrusted to Nathan Dane, a member of Congress from that
State ; and for this reason, probably, the Southern members of the
committee, to whom the subject was referred, acquiesced in the pro
hibition of slavery in a region where they did not believe it would
flourish.1
It was held by some that the Ordinance of 1787 applied to all the
Territories ; but when, in 1789, North Carolina ceded her western
lands to the Union, under the condition " that no regulation made or
to be made by Congress shall tend to the emancipation of slaves," the
cession was accepted with that condition.
The necessity for general education had been recognized in the
Ordinance of 1787, and the measures then taken were per-
Education. 1*10 P m T i
petuated in the States formed out of the lerntones. In the
older States the necessity had been felt, and provision made in differ
ent degrees ; but in nearly all the new State constitutions, educational
interests were acknowledged. The great movement for compulsory and
universal education came at a later date ; the people were still some
what influenced by old habits which separated the great body of un-
1 An attempt was made in The North American Review for April, 1876, by Mr. W. F.
Poole, to show that Dr. Manasseh Cutler, and not Nathan Dane, was the real author of
the Ordinance of 1787. Dr. Cutler was the agent of the Ohio Land Company of Massa
chusetts, and other proposed purchasers of Western lands, and the purchases depended,
apparently, upon the character of the government to he established over that region. It is
quite probable, therefore, that Cutler may have been permitted to read the Ordinance be
fore it was reported to the House, and he may have suggested some changes. The evi
dence that he wrote the article relating to the prohibition of slavery depends upon the
assertion of Dr. Cutler's son in 1849, that, forty-five years before, he heard his father say
— twenty years after the date of the Ordinance — that the article relating to slavery was
his. But the evidence that it was written bv Dane is his own hand writ ing, on a printed
copy of the instrument found among the archives of the United States. An earlier attempt
to take away the honor from Dane, and to bestow it upon Jefferson, was made by Senators
Bentori and Hayne, in a debate with Webster in 1830, in the United States Senate. But
the Ordinance of 1784, which Jefferson wrote, did not prohibit slavery till 1800, and even
that never became the law, nor was there anv essential similaritv in the two ordinances.
1787.]
GENERAL EDUCATION.
Ill
educated from the small body of educated men. Nevertheless, the
growth of free government was the growth of education for all.
Noah Webster, a man of narrow but forcible intellect, in 1783 began
the publication of elementary school-books, and continued NoahWe)).
his work amidst ridicule and against obstacles which would s
have appalled a man less obstinate and self-confident. lie avowed
his purpose to be "• to diffuse an uniformity and purity of language
in America, to destroy the provincial prejudices that originate in the
trifling differences of dialect and produce reciprocal ridicule, to pro
mote the interest of literature and the harmony of the United States."
He preached a crusade of nationalism, and had dreams of an Ameri-
Fort Washington — Cincinnati.
can language. Societies for the preservation of historical material
began also to come into existence, and the scattered and feeble repre
sentatives of literature and science to combine into associations.
Society itself was undergoing a change in manners and gradation,
under the enthusiasm of republican ideas ; but the distinctions of
rank did not disappear suddenly. At Philadelphia, the seat of gov
ernment, they were still rigidly insisted upon. The President rode
out to take the air, with six horses to his coach, and two footmen.
He held a republican court in which the unwritten laws of etiquette
were carefully regarded. It was proposed, and the proposition de
bated with ardor, that he should be addressed as his " High Mighti
ness.'' His birthday was celebrated in the cities, and odes were often
112 UNDER THE CONSTITUTION. [CHAP. V.
addressed to him. Much of this state, however, grew out of the per
sonal regard in which Washington was held. The judges of the
Supreme Court wore robes of scarlet faced with velvet ; clergymen
wore wigs with gowns and bands ; and gentlemen and ladies were
distinguished by the richness and elaborateness of their dress. Col
lege customs imitated in miniature the ranks and grades of society in
the outer world. The Revolution had made many inroads upon these
customs, but the years following peace saw them still carefully ob
served by many people, especially in the cities.1
North Carolina had given in her adhesion shortly after the formation
of the Government, and Rhode Island followed in a few months, —
the last of the original thirteen. Vermont was admitted in 1791,
Kentucky in 1792, and Tennessee in 1796.
In the North, the western part of New York was still the Great
westward West ; but the Ohio country was receiving settlers from
emigration. New England, Kentucky from Virginia, and Tennessee from
North Carolina. The removal of the western frontier was accom
panied by the same conflict which had gone on since the discovery
of the country. Every step taken over the mountains into the fer
tile lands of the West was taken in territory held by Indian tribes.
John Cleves Symmes, afterward famous for his theory that the earth
is hollow, with openings at the poles, obtained in 1788 a grant of one
million acres bounded south by the Ohio and west by the Miami —
extending twenty miles on the Ohio, and about eighty on the Miami.
Here two principal settlements were begun, — North Bend and Cincin
nati. The former seemed likely to become the centre of trade for
the Miami country, but a personal incident decided otherwise. En
sign Luce, sent thither to make a fortification for the protection of
the settlers, became enamoured of a beautiful woman, the wife of a
settler, and the prudent husband presently removed with her to Cin
cinnati. Thereupon the Ensign began to doubt the strategic impor
tance of North Bend, and against the protestations of Judge Symmes,
he removed his command to Cincinnati, and put up a substantial
block-house, and the necessity for protection soon drew after him
most of the inhabitants of North Bend. A few years later the block
house was replaced by a work called Fort Washington.2
Some of the frontier posts which, under the treaty of 1783, should
Hostilities in have been surrendered, were still retained by England.
From these posts, communication was kept up with the In
dians, who were made to believe that the Americans had no claim to
any territory beyond the Ohio, and were incited to continual acts of
1 For many details on these points, see Recollections by Samuel, Bri-ck, Watson's Annals
of Philadelphia, and The, Hansard Book.
'2 Burnet'H Notes on the Northwestern Territory.
1788.]
INDIAX HOSTILITIES.
113
hostility. A cruel warfare upon settlers was gradually developed.
Men went out in the morning to plough, and at evening were found
dead in the furrow. Women and children were killed in their houses.
The savages lay in concealment along the lines of travel, and tired
upon all, whether white
people or negroes, who
passed. The great rivers,
being .the principal high
ways, were the scene of
many of these tragedies.
A lofty rock on the south
ern shore of the Ohio, a
short distance above the
mouth of the Scioto, com
mands a view of the river
The Indians' Rock, near Portsmouth, on the Ohio.
for a long distance, and was used as a watch-tower for the discovery
of boats descending the stream. Often a white prisoner was sent to
the water's edge, to decoy them to the shore, and after the bloody
114 UNDEK THE COXSTHTTIOX. [('HAP. V.
work was done, the boat-load of corpses was sent adrift to tell its
ghastly story to the settlements below. Several incipient villages
were plundered and burned, and their scattered inhabitants never re
built them. Judge Harry Innis declared that to his knowledge fif
teen hundred persons had been killed or captured by the Indians on
or near the Ohio since 1788, 1 and the number of horses stolen was
estimated at twenty thousand.
Antoine Gamelin, who had been an Indian trader, was sent out in
the spring of 1790 to visit the disaffected tribes and invite them to
enter into a treaty of peace with the United States, or confirm the
treaty that had been made at Marietta the previous year. He found
the older people generally disposed to be peaceful, but the young men
were not so pacific. Said a chief of the Kickapoos, 'k You invite us
to stop our young men. It is impossible to do it, being constantly
encouraged by the British/' All the tribes told him they could not
give a final answer till they had conferred with the British authorities
at Detroit. When it was found that peace through peaceable means
was hopeless, Congress authorized General St. Clair, Governor of the
Territory, to call for five hundred militiamen from Pennsylvania, and
a thousand from Kentucky, and with these and a regiment of four
hundred regulars under General Harmar, make a campaign against
iiarmar's some of the principal Indian villages. By the 1st of October
campaign. .y)e expedition, commanded by Harmar, was fairly in motion.
It passed up the valley of the Little Miami, and found the Indian
villages at the head-waters deserted. Here the troops girdled tin-
fruit-trees and destroyed the winter store of corn. Thence the line
i/
of march was westward, crossing the Great Miami at Piqua, and
thence northwesterly about thirty miles, when a, halt was made. The
principal village, Girty's Town, was fifty miles distant, near the pres
ent site of Fort Wayne, Indiana, and Colonel Hardin was sent for
ward with six hundred men to surprise it. They found it deserted
and burned, and went into camp to await the arrival of the main
body. Four days later, October 20, Colonel Hardin was sent with
a hundred and fifty militiamen and thirty regulars to destroy a town,
six miles southward, on the St. Mary's. This detachment fell into
an ambuscade, and the militia at once broke and fled. The regu
lars stood their ground, and fought bayonet against tomahawk, till
all were killed but two officers and two privates, who escaped to a
swamp. General Harmar immediately resolved to make his way
back to Fort Washington ; but he had only marched eight miles
when intelligence came that the Indians had re-occupied their village.
Hardin begged for an opportunity to retrieve his disaster, and was
1 Letter to the Secretary of War, Julv 7, 1790.
1791.]
EXPEDITIONS AGAINST THE INDIANS.
115
Scott's raid.
permitted to turn buck with six hundred militia and sixty regulars.
He made skilful dispositions, and attacked vigorously ; but the savages
were more skilful than he. They pretended to be defeated, fell back
across the Mauraee, and then retreated up the St. Joseph, followed
for two miles by the militia. But a portion of them had remained
behind in ambush to intercept the regulars, and now fell upon them
in overwhelming numbers. The fight was desperate, and largely
hand-to-hand, and but eight of the regulars escaped. The militia
were unable to overtake the Indians in their front, and on their re
turn down the St. Joseph were annoyed by a continuous fire from
both banks. The remnant of Harmar's force returned to Fort Wash
ington, having lost one hundred and eighty-three killed and forty
wounded, but had not killed more than fifty Indians. Harmar and
Hardin were court-martialed, but acquitted.
The next spring, Gen. Charles Scott, of Kentucky, organized a
brigade of mounted riflemen, crossed the Ohio at the mouth
of the Kentucky, surprised and destroyed several Indian
villages on the Wabash and Eel Rivers, laid waste their corn-fields,
and returned in June with
fifty-eight prisoners, with
out having lost a man, and
with only five wounded.
In August a similar raid,
with similar success, was
made by Colonel Wilkinson
against the villages on the
northern tributaries of the
Wabash.
Meanwhile General St.
Clair was organizing a more
formidable expedition, con
sisting of about two thou
sand men, with cavalry and
artillery. Leaving Fort
Washington on October 8,
this force advanced twenty
miles to Fort Hamilton O11 General Arthur St. Clair.
the Miami, thence twenty miles farther north, and erected Fort St.
Clair, and thence twenty miles farther and erected Fort st Clair.s
Jefferson, near the present boundary between Ohio and In- <-amPaisn-
diana. The force was now considerably reduced, not only by the
detachments for garrisons, but by numerous desertions. St. Clair
pushed forward into the wilderness, and on November 3 encamped
116 UNDER THE CONSTITUTION. [CHAP. V.
on a wooded plain among the southeastern sources of the W abash.
Before sunrise next morning a horde of Indians, led by Blue Jacket,
Little Turtle, and Simon Girty, fell upon the camp of the militia,
who at once retreated in disorder upon the main camp, and threw
it into confusion. The Indians pressed close after them, and attacked
furiously, especially on the centre, where the guns were posted. Con
siderable execution was done by these ; but the gunners were repeat
edly driven from their pieces. Several bayonet charges routed the
savages on either flank in succession ; but each time they rallied and
returned to the attack, their numbers apparently undiminished, while
the American forces were constantly decreasing, the loss of officers
being especially heavy. At last the artillery was silenced, half of the
army had fallen,1 and the remainder began a retreat that quickly de
generated into a disgraceful rout in which everything was abandoned.
The Indians pursued only a short distance, and then returned to de
spatch the wounded and scalp the dead. Several of their prisoners
were burned at the stake. During the fight, British officers in full
uniform were seen on the field. They had come from Detroit to
witness the exploits of their savage friends.
After these defeats, a peaceful settlement was more hopeless than
Wayne"? ever. Repeated flag-parties sent out to open negotiations
campaign. were treacherously murdered. The renegade Simon Girty,
a Pennsylvania!! in the British service, who had great influence with
the savages, declared th;it he would u raise all hell to prevent a
peace," and Lord Dorchester, in the autumn of 1793, issued a procla
mation to the Indians, in which he said : " From the manner in
which the people of the United States push forward, act, and talk,
I should not be surprised if we are at war with them in the course
of the present year. If so, a line will have to be drawn by the
warriors." The only remedy was vigorous war, and the most vigor
ous man to prosecute it was Anthony Wayne.
This dashing soldier of the Revolution was appointed Major-gen
eral in 1792, and given the supreme command in the West, with
power to raise three additional regiments of infantry and two thou
sand dragoons, for a term of three years. Early in 1793, he began to
concentrate troops and supplies at Fort Washington ; but recruiting
was slow, and it was September before he could advance. Then he
marched northward eighty miles, built Fort Greenville, — the present
site of Greenville, Darke County, Ohio, — and went into winter quar-
i Thirty-eight officers and six hundred privates were killed or missing, and twenty-one
officers and two hundred and forty-two privates wounded. Among the camp-followers
were two hundred and fifty women, h'fty-six of whom were killed, and most of the others
captured.
1794.] WAYNE'S CAMPAIGN AGAINST THE INDIANS. 117
ters. At the same time, Governor Simcoe marched from Detroit
with a detachment of British troops, and established a military post
at the rapids of the Maumee. All winter the Indians were vigilant,
and they seldom failed to attack any small party that ventured far
from the fortifications. They seemed to understand that a decisive
struggle was at hand, and quotas were sent from nearly all the
northern and western tribes. In June, a strong detachment sent
out by Wayne to the scene of St. Glair's defeat, buried the bleaching
bones of six hundred men, and built Fort Recovery. This work was
attacked, on June 30 and July 1, by a large body of Indians, assisted
by a considerable number of French Canadians with blackened faces,
and encouraged by a few British officers whose brilliant uniforms were
conspicuous on the field.
The Americans lost twenty-
fi v e k i lied and t h i r t y
wounded ; but the assailants
were driven off with heavy
loss. The Indians were em
ployed two nights in carry
ing away their dead and
wounded.
In July, Wayne was re-
enforced by 1,600 mounted
Kentuckians under General
Charles Scott, and having
now nearly four thousand
men, he set out for the In
dian towns on the Au Glaize.
He had been minutely in
structed by President Wash
ington, wrhose experience of
savage warfare dated back General Anthony Wayne-
to Braddock's defeat, and the orders were carefully observed. He
marched with open files, to secure quickness in forming a line in
thick woods, or prolonging the flanks. He kept his army together,
and always halted in the middle of the afternoon, encamped in a
hollow square, and surrounded it with a rampart of logs. On the
2d of August he arrived at St. Mary's River, where he erected Fort
Adams and left a garrison. Thence he crossed the Au Glaize, and
marched down that stream, through villages and fertile fields, all
deserted, to its junction with the Maurnee, where he built Fort Defi
ance. Meanwhile the cavalry were laying waste the country for
miles on either side the line of march. The next advance was down
118 UNDER THE CONSTITUTION. [CiiAi>. V.
the Maumee, to the head of the rapids, within seven miles of the
British Fort Maumee, where Wayne built Fort Deposit. He now7
had two thousand regulars and eleven hundred mounted riflemen, all
well disciplined. On the morning of August 20, the Americans ad
vanced in three columns, and found the Indians and Canadians
formed in three lines, their left resting on the river, and their right
extending nearly two miles to a dense thicket. While the cavalry
attempted to turn their flanks, the infantry advanced with trailed
arms against the centre, roused the enemy with the bayonet, poured
a volley into them as they turned their backs to retreat, and then
continued the charge so impetuously that the line w7as completely
broken, and the fugitives, pursued for two miles, took refuge under
the guns of the British fort.
In this action Wayne lost forty-four killed and a hundred wounded.
The loss of the enemy was not ascertained. The victorious troops
were encamped for three days in sight of the British post, and de
stroyed all the houses and property in the vicinity. They then re
turned to Fort Defiance, laying waste the country as they went, and
continued the march to the Miami villages, at the confluence of the
St. Joseph and St. Mary's, where Fort Wayne was built. This
campaign put an end to Indian hostilities for the time, and rendered
the name of Wayne a terror to the savages, which no persuasions of
their English friends could allay. In 1795 a treaty was made at Fort
Greenville, by which the Indians ceded a large tract of land to the
United States, and the close of these Indian hostilities marks the be
ginning of the rapid and safe settlement of the West.
In the recommendation of an excise on distilled spirits, made by
Secretary Hamilton in his report of 1790, he asserted that
The whiskey \
insm-rec- such duties were not novel, as several of the State govern
ments had imposed them,1 and that all ground for objection
might be removed by giving the officers no summary jurisdiction, and
restricting their search to depositories which the dealers themselves
should designate. A bill drawn up by him was passed by Congress,
in March, 1791, after a long debate, and went into operation in July.
It increased the duty on imported spirits, making it from twenty to
forty cents a gallon and laid a tax on distillation. The law met with
violent opposition, especially in central North Carolina and Western
Pennsylvania. The Legislature of Pennsylvania had instructed their
*J O «/
representatives in Congress to vote against it, and the people of the
western counties — sustained by several eminent men, among whom
was Albert Gallatin — held meetings, appointed committees, and
1 This was true. But it was also true, that in some of the States, notably Pennsylvania,
it had been found impossible to collect them.
1791.]
THE WHISKEY INSURRECTION.
119
adopted resolutions demanding an unconditional repeal. So violent
was the feeling, that General John Neville — who, at his own ex
pense, had equipped and marched a company to Boston in 1776, who
was known far and wide for his benevolence, and in years of scarcity
had thrown open his wheat-fields to his poor neighbors — was insulted
and mobbed, and finally had his house burned down, because he ac
cepted the office of collector for Western Pennsylvania.
The counties west of the Alleghanies — Fayette, Washington, Al
legheny, and Westmoreland — contained about 70,000 inhabitants,
A Mountain Still.
including a considerable number of recent Irish emigrants, who had
brought with them their traditional hatred of excise laws and their
habitual methods of opposing them. Several of Neville's deputies
were tarred and feathered ; others yielded to the clamor of the mob,
and resigned. It was pleaded on behalf of the insurgents that the tax
bore heavily upon the poor people of this region, who had no trans
portation over the mountains except by pack-horses, and had, there
fore, no market for their grain unless they reduced it to spirits, a
fallacious argument, though even now believed in, since all taxes are
added to prices and ultimately come out of the consumer. It was not
the tax on the whiskey they sent over the mountains that really
120
UNDER THE CONSTITUTION.
[ClIAl*. V.
troubled these people,
but on that which they
drank themselves, said
to be no inconsiderable
portion of their whole
product.
The rebellion rapidly
gathered head, till final
ly there was a thorough
organization for resist
ance to the law. On
July 15, 1794, General
Neville's house, barri
caded and occupied by
his servants and a few
friends, was attacked
by forty armed men,
who were fired upon
and driven off, six of
them being wounded.
The next day the mob
returned, increased to
five hundred, and led
by John Ilolcroft, who
had become notorious as
" Tom the Tinker," and
under that signature
had written seditious
articles which the news
papers did not dare re
fuse to publish. .Hut
the party in the house
had been reenforced by
a dozen soldiers, and
the demand for surren
der was rejected. The
rioters attacked the
house, and received a
volley which killed
their chosen military
leader, one McFarlane,
and wounded several
others. The outhouses
1794.] FRIES'S INSURRECTION. 121
were then set on fire, the defenders, three of whom were wounded,
were compelled to surrender, and the mansion itself was soon in
flames. A few days later, the mail to Philadelphia was intercepted,
and several letters which gave accounts of the riotous proceedings
subjected their writers to special persecution.
The insurgents next summoned the militia to meet on Braddock's
Field, August 1, armed and provisioned for four days, and seven thou
sand responded. William Bradford assumed command, and marched
them into Pittsburg ; but they were unwilling to carry out his design
of capturing Fort Pitt, and gradually dispersed. Governor Mifflin,
on various excuses, declined to call out the militia to suppress the
insurrection, and it was spreading to contiguous States. President
Washington, who feared that successful resistance to one law might
be the beginning of rebellion against all law, called on New Jersey,
Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Virginia for 15,000 men, and sent com
missioners to the scene of the disturbance with power to arrange for
peaceful submission any time before September 14. Ten days after
that date, they returned to Philadelphia, having failed to make a
satisfactory settlement. The troops were promptly put in motion,
the Governors of New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Virginia command
ing their respective quotas. The left wing, marching by Braddock's
route, captured more than a hundred insurgents at Hagerstown ; the
right, marching through Carlisle, had an encounter with the popu
lace, and killed a man and a boy. It is said that many of the sol
diers died of disease contracted while crossing the Alleghanies in
inclement weather. On the appearance of the troops, the insurrec
tion subsided. Some of the leaders left the country ; many hastened
to avail themselves of the proffered amnesty ; others were arrested
and brought to trial. Two only were convicted of treason, and they
were pardoned by the President.
Five years later, a similar, but much less violent, insurrection took
place in another section of Pennsylvania. Discontent with Fries-f.{n_
the window-tax began to manifest itself in 1798, and in the surrection-
spring of 1799 a rebellion against it broke out in Northampton
County, and quickly spread into adjoining counties. Most of the in
surgents were Germans, or of German descent. The President
promptly called out the militia, and in a short time the leaders, de
serted by their followers, submitted to arrest. The chief of them,
John Fries, was put upon trial in May, for high treason. The trial
lasted nine days, and resulted in a verdict of "guilty." A new trial
was granted, and held in April, 1800, with the same result, and Fries
was sentenced to be hanged. Against the advice of every member of
his Cabinet, the President not only pardoned him, but issued a gen-
122 UNDER THE CONSTITUTION. [CHAP. V
eral amnesty for all the offenders.1 Fries had declared that " great
men were at the bottom of the business," but he gave no names, and
there was only his own word to justify the statement. Oliver Wol-
cott, Secretary of the Treasury, in writing to the President, said :
" B. McClenachan, of the House of Representatives, was certainly an
agitator among the insurgents, but I do not know, nor do I believe,
that the insurgents had any general views, other than to defeat the
execution of the act of assessment." Fries subsequently opened a tin
ware shop in Philadelphia, and became rich and respectable. The
pecuniary cost of this insurrection, to the government, was compara
tively trifling — eighty thousand dollars. The Whiskey Insurrection
had cost eleven hundred thousand.
Hamilton's associate in office was Thomas Jefferson, who, as Sec
retary of State, represented the relations which the country
Hamilton • i T •
andjeffer- held with Europe. It is true that so far as those relations
son. .
were commercial, — as they chiefly were, — they belonged
to Hamilton's department, and the two Secretaries were brought into
close communion. That the contact was one of conflict wras inevita
ble, both from the nature of the men and from the widely opposing
views which they represented. Hamilton, possessed of the keenest
intellect and the most aggressive nature in the Federalist ranks,
boldly stood in the front upon ail the great national questions.
His leadership, moreover, was of men having a clear conception of
the work needed in establishing the government. The opposing
party blindly and fiercely attacked the Federalist measures, but not
until it found its leader in Jefferson did it discover its own power
as a party. Gradually it dropped the negative title of Anti-federal,
French in- an(^ adopted that of Republican. Jefferson came back from
France filled with the popular ideas, which were looked
upon as the manifestation of a new humanity, and he found a large
number of people ready to kindle to enthusiasm at the mention of
France. His adherents were among those who were moved by a
constant jealousy of a strong central government. France was estab
lishing the " Rights of Man ; " they had themselves taken part in the
deliverance of their own country from British tyranny, and they
feared in Hamilton and his associates a party which would forge new
1 It was argued by the prisoner's counsel that resistance to a specific law was not high
treason, but simply riot, — except in the case of the militia law, resistance to which was
tantamount to resisting all laws, since they all depended upon this for their enforcement.
Mr. Adams appears to have adopted this view, for which he was severely criticised by
Hamilton. Timothy Pickering, Secretary of State, had written to the President: " Pain
ful as is the idea of taking the life of a man, I feel a calm and solid satisfaction that an op
portunity is now presented, in executing the just sentence of the law, to crush that spirit
which, if not overthrown and destroyed, may proceed in its career and overturn the govern
ment."
1793.] RELATIONS WITH ENGLAND AND FRANCE. 1'23
chains for them. Clubs sprang up all over the country, in imitation
of the French republican clubs, and the dress and names of the French
heroes of the hour were enthusiastically copied in the streets of Phil
adelphia, New York, and Boston.
The Federalists, reviled for their supposed English proclivities, were
certainly not helped by those whose allies they were charged England-s
with being. England, in 1791, had tardily sent George attitude-
Hammond to represent her in the United States ; but she continued
to treat them as if they were still rebellious colonies. The effort
made by Hammond on his arrival to negotiate a commercial treaty
was obstructed by Jefferson. The sharpest controversy between the
two countries arose when England, at war with France, undertook to
control the commercial movements of the world. In June, 1793, she
ordered that the goods of a neutral power, if consisting of provisions
for the enemy, were to be captured or bought up, unless shipped to a
friendly port. In November, she declared all vessels laden with the
produce of a French colony to be lawful prize, and claimed the right
of search, with power to impress into her service all seamen of Brit
ish birth, wherever found. These acts created the bitterest feeling
against England, and fanned into a stronger name the zeal of the
French party.
But the French were no less aggressive. In April, 1793, Edmund
Charles Genet landed at Charleston, accredited to the United
States from France. He came fresh from the councils
which had sent Louis XVI. to the scaffold, and was received with
enthusiasm by the French party in the United States. Without
waiting to present himself at Philadelphia, he issued commissions
to privateers and ordered that their prizes should be tried and con
demned by French consuls in the United States. He fancied that
the people who welcomed him constituted the Government of the
United States, or at least could control it. He threatened to appeal
to the people against the decisions of the officers of the administra
tion, and became, at last, so violent in his insolence, that there was no
decent or dignified course to pursue but to demand his recall. The
Neutrality Act of 1794 was passed by Congress as a defensive meas
ure at this critical juncture.
A British order in council, issued in November of this year, direct
ing the cruisers to make prize of any vessel carrying the rjanger0f
produce of a French colony, or transporting supplies to war-
such colony, became public two months later, and created great ex
citement in the United States. This was intensified by the speech
of Lord Dorchester, already referred to. An embargo for thirty days,
afterward extended to sixty, was at once laid by joint resolution of
124
UNDER THE CONSTITUTION.
[CHAP. V.
Jay's treaty.
Congress, and measures for strengthening the military power were
introduced ; a resolution for the sequestration of debts due to British
subjects, was debated; and one to discontinue all commercial inter
course with Great Britain till the western posts had been surrendered,
passed the House, and WHS only lost in the Senate by the casting vote.
To avert war, Washington determined to send an envoy extraordinary
to London to negotiate a treaty of amity and commerce, and after
careful consideration conferred the appointment upon Chief Justice
Jay, who sailed in May, 1794.
He found Lord Grenville, Minister for Foreign Affairs, apparently
quite as anxious as himself to place the relations of the two
governments on a better footing, and by November they had
agreed upon a treaty which was ratified by the Senate in June, 1795,
and went into opera
tion in February, 1796.
The first ten articles,
which were intended
to be perpetual, pro
vided for the with
drawal of British
troops and garrisons
from the western posts
by June 1, 1796; for
free inland navigation
and trade to both na
tions upon lakes and
rivers, except that the
United States were ex
cluded from the do
main of the Hudson
Bay Company ; for
the admission of Brit
ish vessels to the rivers
and harbors on the sea-
coast of the United
John Jav- States, but closing to
the vessels of the latter the rivers and harbors of the British colo
nies on the continent, except to small vessels trading between Mon
treal and Quebec ; the Mississippi to be open to both; a joint survey
of the head-waters of the Mississippi ; a commission to determine
what was meant by the St. Croix River, and fix the northeastern
boundary ; the United States to guarantee payment of debts to
British creditors in all cases where they would be collectable by an
1795.] JAY'S TREATY. 125
American creditor; Great Britain to pay for losses by irregular cap
tures by British cruisers; citizens of either country to be permitted to
hold landed property in the territory of the other; and no private
property to be confiscated in case of war. By the twelfth article,
which was to become void two years after the close of the existing
war, trade between the United States and the West India Islands, in
the productions of either, might be carried on on equal terms in both
American and British vessels ; but the former were prohibited from
carrying West Indian products from the islands or from the States to
any other part of the world. It provided for further negotiation at
the end of the two years. The remaining articles, whose operation
was limited also to two years, — unless the negotiation then under the
twelfth article should decide otherwise, — provided that American
vessels might trade to the East Indies, but in time of war must not
take thence any rice or military or naval stores, without special per
mission, and must not carry anything to any place but the United
States ; established liberty of commerce between the British domin
ions in Europe and the United States ; provided for the regulation of
duties, the appointment of consuls, the proceedings with prizes cap
tured at sea, and the rules of blockade, defined contraband of war,
regulated privateering,1 and promised to punish piracy ; citizens of
either country were not to accept commissions from any state at war
with the other, on pain of being treated as outlaws ; no reprisals were
to be made till a demand for satisfaction had been refused ; ships of
war were to be received in each other's ports ; foreign privateers were
not to arm, or sell prizes, in the ports of either, if warring on the
other ; in case of war between Great Britain and the United States,
citizens of either in the other's territory were not to be molested ;
and criminals escaping from one country to the other were to be de
livered up.
This, as its friends admitted, was not altogether a good treaty ; it
was much more favorable to England than to the United States. But
they argued that to the United States it was better than no treaty,
better than war, better than a continual liability to war. Washing
ton favored it, and all his cabinet, except Randolph, agreed with him.
The opposition to it was very violent. Public meetings to denounce
it, with riotous demonstrations, were held in Boston, New York,
Philadelphia, Charleston, and elsewhere. When it came before the
House of Representatives, the opposition of the Democrats was bitter
and unrestrained. The President's instructions to Jay, and all other
papers relating to the treaty, were demanded. The President, with
1 Mr. Jay had proposed an article abolishing privateering altogether, by citizens of either
power against the commerce of the other; but Lord Grenville would not agree to it.
126
UXDER THE CONSTITUTION.
[ClIAP. V.
the assent of his Cabinet, denied that the House could rightfully
make any such demand, and refused to comply with it. The treaty-
making power was conferred by the Constitution exclusively upon
the President and Senate ; but the Democrats proposed to nullify
the supreme law by withholding the necessary appropriations to carry
out the terms of the treaty. Their ground was, that where the execu
tion of any treaty — and treaties with Spain, with Algiers, and with
the Northwestern Indians, as well as with Great Britain, were at
this moment before the House — depended upon appropriations, they
might be made or withheld at the pleasure of the House; that as re
garded this particular treaty, it favored England, it was opposed to
France, it was for the benefit of Northern trade, it failed to provide
for the loss of slaves who fled with the British armies at the close of
the Revolution. The resolution to make the needed appropriations,
however, passed after a long and hot debate; but it was carried by
Northern votes, only four votes from States south of the Potomac be
ing given in its favor. The South was already quick to oppose any
thing that did not add to its own strength. The cloud, at first not
bigger than a man's hand, was growing visibly larger.
Franklin s Grave in Philadelph
CHAPTER VI.
ADMINISTRATIONS OF ADAMS AND .JEFFERSON.
THIRD ELECTION OF PKKSIDEXT. — NORTHERN AND SOUTHERN JEALOUSY. — THE
CHIEF OF ONE PARTY THE SUCCESSOR TO THE CHIEF OF THE OTHER. — SENSITIVE
NESS OF PUBLIC MEN AND VIRULENCE OF THE PRESS. — ALIEN AND SEDITION LAWS.
— THE CARRYING TRADE OF THE WORLD. — FRANCE AND AMERICA. — ENGLAND AND
AMERICA. — THE CONDESCENSION OF FOREIGNERS. — ENVOYS TO FRANCE. — THE
X. Y. Z. CORRESPONDENCE. — NAPOLEON'S ACCESSION TO POWER. — YELLOW FEVER
IN AMERICA. — WASHINGTON'S DEATH. — THREATENING OF WAR WITH FRANCE. —
PREPARATIONS AGAINST SPAIN. — NAVIGATION OF THE MISSISSIPPI. — WILKINSON'S
CORRUPT INTRIGUES. — SPAIN'S DREAD OF THE UNITED STATES. — HAMILTON AND
MIRANDA. — FOURTH ELECTION OF PRESIDENT. — THE PURCHASE OF LOUISIANA.
— AAROX BURR'S EXPEDITION. — His TRIAL FOR TREASON.
WITH the autumn of 1706 came the period prescribed for the third
election of President. Through the summer it was not known,
excepting to Washington himself, perhaps, and possibly to of John1
some confidential friends, whether he would serve for a third
term. lie had requested Madison and Hamilton to prepare drafts
for a farewell address, — but this he had done in 1792, at the end of
his first term. There was then no precedent which suggested that
eight years was the period of a full presidency ; nor do any of the
authors of the Constitution seem to have committed themselves for
or against such a suggestion. So far was it uncertain whether Wash
ington would consent to serve that, in the nomination of electors, both
parties aimed to strengthen themselves, if possible, by naming candi
dates who were certain to vote for him if he \vould stand. The other
candidates were John Adams, who was supported by the Federalists,
and Jefferson, who had received four electoral votes in the election
for the second term.
It may well be believed that Washington permitted the doubt as
to his purpose in the hope of strengthening the canvass of Adams's
friends. And probably it had some effect in this direction. But it
was easy for the Democratic leaders, who worked under very careful
counsels from their own candidate, to name electors whose first vote
would have been given to Washington. This was done in Virginia, and
128 ADMINISTRATIONS OF ADAMS AND JEFFERSON. [CiiAi>. VI.
probably in other States. The voters of the Federal party voted for
electors with the intention of making Adams President, if they could,
and Thomas Pinckney, of South Carolina, Vice-president. The in
tention of Democratic voters was to make Jeffeison President, and to
elect as Vice-president Aaron Burr, of New York, who had received.
four years before, one electoral vote thrown away in South Carolina.
The reader must remember, however, that it was impossible for the
electors in the most distant States to confer with one another in the
period between their own election and the day when they met to
choose the President. The North was jealous of the South, and the
South of the North. In the fear, therefore, at the North, that Mr.
Pinckney might be chosen President at the South over Mr. Adams,
the New Hampshire electors threw away their six votes for Oliver
Ellsworth of Connecticut. One elector in Massachusetts and four in
Rhode Island did the same. Five of the Connecticut electors voted
for Jay instead of Pinckney. In South Carolina, to have the whole
government in the hands of Southern men, the electors, regardless of
other party ties, gave their eight votes for Jefferson and Pinckney,
though one was a Federal candidate and the other a Democrat. This
was exactly what the Northern electors had feared. Pinckney also
lost four votes in Georgia, which were given to George Clinton. The
result was, that while Adams had seventy-one votes, just the number
necessary for a choice, Mr. Pinckney had but fifty-nine. Jefferson,
whose votes were all given by persons in opposition to Adams, had
sixty-eight votes — not a majority. The Senate had to choose him
or Pinckney Vice-president, and chose Jefferson. Thus the head of
one party was chosen President, and the head of the other, Vice-pres
ident, of the Republic.
To the eyes of the actors in the politics of those four years, unac
customed as they were to the larger movements of nations, their con
tests seemed of supreme importance ; and certainly they were con
ducted with an acrimony that had never been known in America
before, and never has been known since. The writers for
The bitter- , „ , , -,
nessofpoii- the press were, unfortunately, in many cases, adventurers
from other lands, who had nothing at risk, and were quite
unacquainted with the traditions of America, and with those underly
ing and fundamental characteristics of a nation, which cannot be ex
pressed, even in constitutions, but which need to be recognized in all
its policy. To the bitterness of the invective and satire of such
writers, the public men of the country were new. Of the impotence
of such invective and satire they had no experience. Their letters
and their public addresses, therefore, are full of such allusions to
the venomous and hateful slanders of the press as must have de-
1798.] THE ALIEN AND SEDITION LAWS. 129
lighted the assailants, really insignificant, whose spite thus gained far
more influence than it deserved.
The violence of such invective drove the Government to propose a
measure, passed by Congress, which was in fact aimed at
these very writers. On the 18th of June, 1798, this act was and sedition
approved. The facility of naturalization was restricted, and
the President was permitted to send out of the country such aliens as
he thought dangerous to the United States. He might give license
to aliens to remain during his pleasure ; he might require bonds for
their good behavior. Aliens who had no licenses might be impris
oned : and masters of vessels who brought them might be fined for
not reporting their arrival. This statute was certainly not in the
tone of those trumpet proclamations which represented America as
the home of the oppressed of all nations. It did not meet with a
very hospitable welcome from those travellers — more remarkable for
their former rank than for their numbers — who in the troubles of
Europe sought America as the land of promise. Volney, Talleyrand,
and Chateaubriand, and the son of Philippe 1'Egalite, the Duke, of
Orleans, are representatives of this class of travellers, some of whom
had some thought of becoming citizens of the Republic. The trainers
of the law had not such men in mind, so much as men of whom Cob-
bett and Duane are the better types, who had brought sharp pens
with them, which thev were ready to use whenever they could still*'
«/ i/ J o
men to madness or draw hot blood. It is still a question whether
this law was unconstitutional.1 Handled as it was by the writers
whom it was meant to terrify, it certainly proved obnoxious.
It was coupled in the popular opinion with what was called the
Sedition Law. The 4t Alien and Sedition Laws" stood and fell to
gether as monuments of what their friends called the courage, and
O '
their enemies the folly, of the Federal party. The Sedition La\v
made live offences penal, which have been briefly described as " de
faming Congress or the President," " exciting the hatred of the people
against them." " stirring up sedition in the United States," " raising
unlawful combinations for resisting the laws," and "aidino- foreign
^> t? o
nations against the United States." It cannot be doubted that in
1 Von Hoist (Constitutional History of the United States) says, "for ;i long time thev had
been considered in the United States as unquestionably unconstitutional." This is too
strong. But Chief Justice Marshall is said to have intimated it. There is a letter of Cal-
houn's which Von Hoist probably had in mind, in which he savs that " no constitutional
question of a political character which has been agitated" — since the adoption of the
Constitution — " has ever been settled in the public mind, except that of the uneonstitu-
tionality of the Alien and Sedition Laws, and, what is remarkable, that was settled against
the decision of the Supreme Court." But the Supreme Court never gave anv decision,
although all the judges of the time, except Judge Chase, in different decisions pronounced
them constitutional.
VOL. iv. 9
1HO ADMINISTRATION'S OF ADAMS AND JKFFERSOX. [CiiAi-. VI.
the organization of the government some legislation on such points
was necessary. Such legislation has been silently approved and as
sented to in later times. But in the process of forming national
opinion and a national life, this particular measure met the same
storm of dissent which fell upon the Alien Act. That act had the
additional misfortune of being based OH an English model. The
English Alien Law, indeed, had given to the English Government the
power of banishing some of those strangers whose comfort here \vas
now threatened by the sister act in America.1
Both acts, and the bitter discussion which accompanied them,
The Virginia might have fallen into the forgetfulness in which lie many
tucky rego- other laws passed and repealed in times of great partisan
excitement, but for the comments made on them by the
legislatures of' Virginia and Kentucky. In resolutions which for
half a century were celebrated, — referred to, indeed, more often
than they were read, — these legislative bodies declared, that when
Congress passed acts beyond its constitutional powers, the States
were not bound to obey, and that each State had the right to
determine the question of constitutionality. The resolves had the
more importance because they were secretly dictated by Vice-pres
ident Jefferson, the leader of the Democratic party. In the
Jefferson in- . . . -, , ,,'.,.
vents mini- Kentucky resolutions, the significant word k> nullification
first occurs. In the original draft of the Resolutions of 17l>8,
written by Jefferson himself, he says : "• Where powers are assumed
which have not been delegated, a nullification of the act is the right
ful remedy : that every State has a natural right, in cases not within
the compact, to nullify, of their own authority, all assumptions of
power by others within their limits." Though this passage was
omitted in the resolutions of that year, it was restored, with some
slight verbal changes, in those adopted a year later. The resolutions
were transmitted to the legislatures of the other States. They be-
o •/
came matters of eager discussion, and were for half a century the
declaration of the "State Rights" theory of the Constitution. As,
in point of fact, Jefferson became President, in an election where
these resolutions made the programme of his supporters, as he never
had any thought afterward of abandoning any power which the Fed
eral Government could claim, and as his successors followed the same
convenient precedents, the "• nullification " resolutions never had any
practical effect, until South Carolina, led by Mr. Oalhoun, attempted
to carry out the doctrine, a generation afterward. For the present,
1 " Din-in'; this debate, an Irish representative remarked to a stranirer in the lobby, that
nearly one fourth of the members then present were natives of Europe. " — American Annual.
Register, vol. ii. The debate was on the stamp-tax on naturalization papers, July 1, 1797.
K<)8.] COMMERCIAL RELATIONS.
the resolutions gave the rallying cry to the Republican or Democratic
party for the overthrow of President Adams and his supporters.
Foreign negotiations, meanwhile, occupied attention and interest,
such as belonged to a struggle in Europe in which every Foroign re_
fundamental principle was involved. That struggle, from latlons-
tin: very nature of the case, interested the sailors and merchants of
the United States. It appeared already that a "carrying trade" was
possible for American vessels, because they were neutrals, which
might become a trade of very great value. Between Europe, Amer
ica, and the East Indies, and between the different ports of Europe,
American vessels could go and come, while the vessels of bellige
rent powers were restrained by frequent blockades. This profitable
commerce gave a development which even later times would call
large, to the ship-building and mercantile life of the United States,
especially in those States whose people had most experience on the
sea.
But it was fettered bv many annoyances. England had never
abandoned the custom, which now seems so barbarous, of
... Restrictions
impressing into the naval service of the King such seamen on com
as might be needed, wherever they were found. In the
voyages of English cruisers, the commanders did not scruple to
search for English seamen on board of American merchant ships.
They often abused a privilege which was at best but the right of the
stronger, and would take from an American vessel Amer- Tlie«,.iffht
ican seamen, under the pretext that they were English. ofse:m'h-"
Commanders of blockading squadrons, also, when they had over
hauled an American merchantman, did not readily abandon such a
pri/.e because she Mas a neutral. The vessel would be turned from
her voyage, and sent into a convenient port for adjudication. Even
if the court there pronounced the seizure illegal, and released the
vessel, the delay of her voyage was an insult to the nation and a seri
ous injury to her master, crew, and owners. As, generally speaking,
half Europe was at war against the other half, every American vessel
sailing from one belligerent port to another had to pass two blockad
ing squadrons, if the blockades which had been proclaimed were en
forced. It may readily be supposed that the unprotected merchant
men of a nation far away were by no means sure of friendly inves
tigation by officers of such squadrons.
Nor were considerations of interest the only ones which brought the
people of the United States into close relationship with European
politics. The sympathy of France with America through the Revo
lution had been close and efficient. The present war was the result
of an effort made by Frenchmen to establish a republic, and they
132 ADMINISTRATIONS OF ADAMS AND JKKFKIISOX. [(.'IIAI-. \L
were eager to acknowledge that they had taken their first lessons in
republican government in America. On the other hand, it was from
a war with England that the United States was only now recovering.
All along the coast were traces of the incursions of English soldiers
or English sailors. War had assumed all those forms of personal
resentment which are inevitable where hostile armies land on an
unprotected coast, and where the lirst object of the invasion is to
strip the farms of the food which may be necessary to the invader.
Such memories do not die in one generation. In this instance they
left a bitterness against England in the minds of the people of the
United States, which was never vainlv appealed to by the leaders of
parties, till half a century had gone by.
The proceedings of Genet, Adet. and Foiichet in representing the
French Government in America had been exasperating to
Attitude of r ^ . x ^
French en- Washington. To that air of condescension still observable
voys, . , . . .
in all foreigners in America, they added the arrogance which
reminded their hosts of the bounties of Louis XVI., — and an arrogance
of their own, as representatives of pure republicanism, in comparison
with which they considered that of America !mt a sham. More
than one of these diplomatists met the rebuke of Washington and his
cabinet. In these rebukes even Jefferson was obliged to join some
times, though it was wrell enough understood that he and his partv
favored the French, and were willing to apologize for the indiscretion
and insolence of their envoys. But to diplomatic insults, which
aroused some indignation in the country, was added the blow to
American commerce, as vessel after vessel was seized by one or an
other French cruiser, detained for examination, and perhaps con
demned. Nearly a thousand vessels, thus detained or captured, were
named in the authenticated despatches published by the Government,
and of the 'l'ie Directory of France justified such measures only by
Directory, pleading their displeasure at the Jay Treaty. They went
so far as to refuse to receive Pinckney, whom the American Govern
ment had sent out as its envoy, and ordered him to quit the lie-
public.
On this news the President called an extra session of Congress.
He named Pinckney, John Marshall, and Elbridge (Jerry as a com
mission to renew the negotiation. In this appointment he not only
tried to pacify France, but to satisfy the opposition to his own admin
istration by naming Elbridge Gerry from the number of his oppo
nents. The first news received from them was not favorable. It
was a decree of the Directory ami Council that all neutral ships
bearing any English commodities should be good prize, and that
French ports should be closed against all neutral vessels which had
1798.]
ENVOYS TO FRANCE.
133
touched ports under the English flag. The next report informed the
Government that on their arrival in France they had been met by
unofficial agents, who assured them that they would not be received
until they had offered suitable bribes to officers of the government.
Talleyrand himself, who was then Foreign Minister of France, was
implicated in this disgraceful proposal.1 Externally, any reception
was refused to the three envoys by the Directory. Privately they
were made certain that if they paid the bribes they would be re
ceived, with good
probability of suc
cess ; " money is
needed, a great
deal of in o n e y.''
Once received,
the A in e ri can
Govern m e n t
would be asked to
make a handsome
loan to the French
Republic, the cred
it of which was at
a very low ebb.
If this loan was
granted, the I)i-
r e c t o r y, o n its
part, would make
concessions. The
envoys rejected the
humiliating propo-
sa 1 . They were
then ordered out
o f the country,
with the exception
o f M r. G e r r y,
who, as an adherent of Jefferson's, it was supposed might prove more
pliable.
The report made by its envoys was at once published by the Gov
ernment of the United States, and republished in England
and France. In place of the names of the three unofficial correspond-"
agents, the letters X, Y, and Z were substituted in the pub
lication, and the correspondence has been known ever since as u the
1 Of this there can be no doubt. Gerry's letter proves it. Napoleon knew it to be true.
Compare Sir Henry Bulwer's sketch of Talleyrand.
Chief Justice Marshal1
134 ADMINISTRATIONS OF ADAMS AND JEFFERSON. [CHAP. VI.
X. Y. Z. correspondence." 1 The disgraceful proposal aroused the
whole country to indignation. Congress ordered an enlargement of
the standing army by twelve regiments. It ordered the construction
of a navy of twenty-four vessels, and authorized merchantmen to arm
themselves against the French vessels of war. So far as the acts of
their cruisers went, the two nations were, in fact, at war. It was not
so long since the privateering of the Revolution but that seamen and
merchants could fit out their ships for fighting in the most effective
way. In the West Indies two serious conflicts took place. The Del<t-
wAn\ of the United States navy, captured a heavy French privateer,
and the Constellation took Vlnsurgente, a French frigate. Both ves
sels were sent into port as prizes.
Had that unwise and ill-fated body, the Directory, led France any
Napoleon's longer toward her ruin, war would certainly have been pro-
pohey. claimed on one side or on both. I>ut the young Napoleon,
when he seized the reins of power, had sense enough to see the mad
ness of the claims on which the Directory had insisted. He received,
with the most cordial welcome, the new embassy sent out by Adams.
It consisted of Chief Justice Ellsworth, William R. Davie, and Wil
liam Van Murray. Napoleon had already learned that Talleyrand
was not above suspicion in matters where pecuniary integrity was
involved. He made his own brother Joseph the head of the three
plenipotentiaries appointed to treat with the Americans.2 Orders
were immediately given to French cruisers to avoid the molestation
of American vessels, and that cordial understanding between the
countries began of which the important result was the cession of Lou
isiana two years later.
Meanwhile, in America, every step of the negotiation, and every
turn in the politics of France, was marked by new appeals to the one
political party or the other. The national feeling inevitably stood
with the party which seemed, at the moment, most zealous for na
tional honor. All political discussion was impregnated wTith senti
ments which sprang from the sympathy of the parties with the dif
ferent combatants in Europe. In the Federal party itself, great dis
affection was aroused at every step by which the President attempted
either to conciliate their opponents or to take a middle course be
tween extremes. His appointment of another mission to France,
without consulting his Cabinet, in spite of the contemptuous treat
ment of the late envoys, in spite of his own declaration that he
would never send another minister to that government till lie was
1 X. was Hotti ngner> a banker ; Y., Bellamy, of Hamburg; Z., Hautval, :i Frenchman.
2 Joseph Bonaparte, as Count de Survilliers, afterward resided for many years in Amer
ica.
1798.]
YELLOW FEVER IN AMERICA.
185
assured of a cordial reception, alienated the confidence of some of
the most influential leaders of his party. The result of this dis
affection, and of the unpopular Sedition Law, appeared in the issue
of the election of 1800. By that issue the administration of govern
ment was taken out of the hands of the Federalists, to fall into and
remain in the hands of the Democrats for the next quarter of a
century.
The country had other interests of great importance which were
quite independent of these European complications. In the Ycllow fe.
summer of 1798, yellow fever, that disease which is still as ver-
mysterious in its movements as it was then, established itself in most
of the principal seaports of
the Atlantic coast. Con
gress fled from Philadel
phia before its approach.
The administration of the
government was seriously
affected by the absence of
leading members. Trade
of course suffered, espe-
ciallv commerce with for
eign nations. In the ne
gotiations with the Barba
rians on the Moorish coast,
our envoys even apologized
to the Dey of Tripoli for
the cessation of our govern
ment while the pestilence
had driven men from the
capital. In the summer of Eibndge Gerry.
1800 the capital was removed to Washington, ki the Federal City '' as
it was at first called.
While the preparations for war with France were impending, and
for Avar with Spain under the pretext of war with France, Deathof
the whole country was moved with profound sorrow by the Washinston-
announcement of the death of Washington, December 14, 1799, at his
home at Mount Vernon. For some years past, his resolute sympathy
with the national policy of the Federalists had brought on his head
some of the most rancorous abuse of the opposition journals of Phila
delphia. The English writers, who then attempted to lead public
opinion, were, as they have often been in later cases of history, es
pecially bitter. But all such abuse ceased when his death was an
nounced. The whole country, even in its smaller towns,, arranged
136 ADMINISTRATIONS OF ADAMS AND JEFFERSON. [CHAP. VI.
public solemnities by which to express its grief. From that time
it has been difficult to discuss the character or exploits of Wash
ington with the same impartiality with which those of any other man
are regarded. It was felt at the time, and has been felt ever since,
that his services through the war, and through the crystallization of
the Constitution in its first years, were such as no other man could
render. A single; passage in the address made before Congress by
General Henry Lee lias become proverbial. It pronounced him
" First in war, first in peace, and first in the hearts of his country-
i
men.
The " war
with
France."
The Beginning of the Capitol. — From an old print.
At the time of his death, Washington had been appointed Lieuten
ant-general of the enlarged army, with a view to its organi
zation for what was called the war with France, hut he
did not suppose, nor did the President, nor did Hamilton,
who was first in command under Washington, suppose that France
would invade America. Of course they did not propose that America
should invade France. Twelve new regiments were to be recruited
and stationed at Fort Washington — now Cincinnati. At that post
c.oncrai Wilkinson, who commanded in the West, was directed to
ikmson. })uj](| flat-boats sufficient to carry the army thus formed
down the Ohio and the Mississippi. The plan of the campaign was
digested between Hamilton and Wilkinson by conference in part,
1 The resolutions passed by Congress on the death of Washington, contained the words,
"to the memory of the man, first in war, first in peace, and first in the hearts of his fellow-
citizens." Marshall (Life of Washington) snvs the resolutions were written by General
Lee, though read by another member. In the oration pronounced before both Houses of
Congress by General Henry Lee, the words used were -" first in war, first in peace, and
first in the hearts of his countrymen." It is a fact worth noting that Henry Lee, the son
of the General, in a note to the second edition of his father's Memoirs, says the oration lie-
fore Congress was delivered by Marshall. It is a remarkable mistake to make, but that
it is a mistake, there can be no question.
1709.]
NAVIGATION OF TIIK MISSISSIPPI.
137
His treason.
and in part by letters. Wilkinson was, in truth, the last person who
should have been entrusted with any such business. He had left the
army at the end of the Revolution, and settled in Kentucky. Me
had soon after entered into personal communication with
Miro, the Spanish Governor of Louisiana, which resulted
in his receiving, regularly but secretly, an annual payment from the
Spanish Government, to buy his services for detaching Kentucky
and the Western States from the Union.1 Such was the traitor into
whose hands Adams and Hamilton gave with confidence the com-
an old pr
mand of what was called u The Legion of the West." Such was
the man who afterward had the fortune of arresting — if he did not
first desert — the movement of Aaron Burr, and compelling him to
that flight in which he became a prisoner to the United States.
The determination to strike at Orleans,2 and wrest it from Spain,
was forced on the Government by the exasperation of the
people of the States on the Ohio and Mississippi, when their of>thetHi*'
trade by the great river was suddenly arrested. From the
time of the treaty of 1783 they had been ill at ease. Under that
treaty Spain held the mouth of the river. For, though the eastern
1 This treason, suspected at the time, is now made certain hy the documents copied from
the Spanish archives for the State of Louisiana. See Gayarre's Louisiana.
2 So it was generally called till the cession of Louisiana, though the official name was
" Nouvelle Orleans."
138 ADMINISTRATIONS OF ADAMS AND JEFFERSON. [CHAP. VI.
side of the Mississippi had been granted to the new nation, the west
ern side was left to Spain, the ally of the United States as against
England. Spain also had the eastern side, south of 81° N. latitude,
partly because Orleans was on the eastern side, and partly because
the boundary between Florida and Louisiana had never been deter
mined. But, before 1783, there were settlers from the sea-coast
States in the valley of the Mississippi. As they increased in number,
the necessity for a route to the sea by the river was more and more
manifest. Such was the severity of the Spanish colonial policy, that
all goods sent down the river had to be transhipped at Orleans, and,
indeed, to be sold to Spanish purchasers. Tobacco, a large part of
the produce of Kentucky, could be sold only to the Spanish Crown,
which assumed the monopoly of that trade. All these impositions
enforced by the Spanish Government were regarded by the new set
tlers as the greatest hardship, as, indeed, they were. Many of the
settlers had emigrated to escape taxation at the East; but thev
found their agriculture and commerce in their new home hampered
by restrictions more severe than any Eastern taxation. Their dis
affection showed itself from time to time in different forms.
Some men thought of independence of the United States, with close
alliance with Spain ; some proposed to submit to Spain, as a part
of her colony of Louisiana ; others dreamed of seizing ( )rleans, and
making war with Spain, by the unaided force of the West ; others
hoped to induce Congress to declare war ; and still others proposed
an alliance with France, and to persuade her to reassert her empire
over the valley of the Mississippi. Of course the great body of
settlers were ignorant of such intrigues. But such schemes, more
or less distinctly formed, were in the minds of all leading men.
They did not lack counsellors from without. Miro, the shrewd
Spanish Governor of Orleans and Louisiana, held Wilkinson in
his pay, as has been said, for many years. Nor was the Governor
slow in bribing other politicians or employing other agents. Lord
Dorchester, in Canada, known to the officers of the American Revo
lution as Sir Guy Carleton, — the ablest officer, except Cornwallis,
whom Great Britain then employed in high command in America,—
was on the alert to feel the dissatisfaction of the West by his agents.
Genet, the envoy of the French Republic, freely issued commissions
in the West, to such as adhered to the broad schemes of the Directory
lor the universal emancipation of mankind. Into the details of such
intrigues it is not more necessary to go than into the history of the
intrigues of any other self-seeking politicians, who, in the end, attain
no object of public importance.
The relations of the United States with Spain came to one crisis
1799.] RELATIONS WITH SPAIN. 139
when Adams sent Ellicott, as a scientific commissioner, with an escort,
to Natchez, to run the line of 31° N. latitude, in conjunction with
the Spanish authorities. The Spanish Governor, still relying on his
plans for separating the Western States from their alle- Troubies
giance, deferred, to the very last, the withdrawal of Spanish spanilhCau-
garrisons from territory which was confessed to belong to thon
the United States. When Ellicott arrived with his escort at Natchez,
the American troops occupied one cantonment, while the Spanish
troops still held the old forts at Nogales.1 The surveys went for
ward, and Ellicott, as American commissioner, steadily pressed the
removal of the Spanish garrison. Castilian diplomacy and politeness
exhausted themselves in the long delays, but these lasted till the end
of March, 1791'. Captain Guion, commander of the American forces,
finally told Gayoso, the Spanish commander, that he would storm the
forts if they were not evacuated before the 1st of April. This threat
prevailed. The Spaniards sent their guns down the river, and, with
out any notice, either to the commissioner for the boundary, or to
the military commander, withdrew silently and sullenly on the 29th
of March, just in time to avoid a collision.
A policy more likely to be effective on their part, would have
been, to soothe the Western settlers by every concession possible.
But the traditional severity of the colonial laws of Spain did not per
mit such concession: and there is mixed up in all the Spanish di
plomacy of the period, a curious distrust of the future enmity of the
people, whose good-will at the moment the governors at Orleans
should have been attempting to obtain. As early as 1776, when, at
the instance of Oliver Pollock,2 Governor Unzaga was supplying
powder to the American insurgents by way of Pittsburg, in obedience
to commands from Madrid, he wrote to Madrid : u I suspect that at
anv moment the royalists and insurgents may make up their quarrel
and unite to take possession of one of the domains of some European
power/' This was fifteen days before the Declaration of Independ
ence. The same suspicion haunted the Spanish officers in all the
after negotiations. In 1787, Navarro wrote home: "I see clouds
rising and threatening us with a storm which will soon burst on this
province, and the damage would be still greater if, unfortunately,
the inundation extended itself to the territories of New Spain."
Acting under this terror, he and his successors attempted to guard
against the Americans by keeping them away. With a policy as
wise as that which should have dammed the Mississippi itself, in
dread of such an inundation as Navarro's metaphor suggests, the
successive Spanish governors of Louisiana attempted to hold back
1 Now known as " Walnut Hills." 2 See vol. iii., p. 413.
140 ADMINISTRATIONS OF ADAMS AND JEFFERSON. [CiiAi>. VI.
the settlers from any access to the sea. Once and again, in the
course of seventeen years, between the treaty of 1783 and the trans
fer of the province back to France, the indignant Kentuckians en
rolled their hunters to go down on the flood of the river and take
possession of the little capital. The French envoy, Genet, who
founded Jacobin clubs in the West, whispered promises of similar
invasion. In 171*0, as a result of negotiation in Madrid, the pre
ceding year, the malcontents on the river were in a measure satisfied
by a concession on the part of Spain of the "right of deposit" at
Orleans. This meant simply that the settlers might send their
goods there, to store them and await a market.
Hut, in 17!M>, as soon as these three years had expired, Morales,
who was the Intendant of Commerce at Orleans, announced, by an
unexpected decree, that this concession would be allowed no longer.
Once more the rage of the Western States burned hot. Once more
coutt-nipia- they threatened to take law into their own hands. It was
oifxew'or- tnen tnat> under the pretext of the war with France, Presi
dent John Adams began the enlistment of the twelve regi
ments for service in the West. They reported for duty at Fort Wash
ington, and here flat-boats were built to convey them to the attack
on Orleans. Spain had no force there to resist them. The garri
son of Orleans was but a handful. Its defences were a bare picket
fence. And, as was just now said, the commanding post at Nogales,
near Natchez, had been abandoned at the pressing instance of Cap
tain Guion of the United States army.
In this willingness to attack the little Spanish post, it may be
said that all parties of influence among the Americans joined. The
Western men were eager; they filled the ranks of the newly-enlisted
army. President Adams had been always determined to secure
access to the sea by the Mississippi, and he had no hesitation in tak
ing decisive measures. Hamilton, who was practically first in com
mand, seems to have been led on not only by these considerations,
but by the eagerness of a successful soldier, still young, for
Hamilton »••... .
!.n.i Miran- afield worthy of his ambition. lie had become interested
da. ^
in Miranda, a Spanish adventurer, who only lacked success
to earn a more honorable name in history. Miranda had persuaded
Hamilton that the English Government would support him in a
.scheme for overthrowing the Spanish authority in the Spanish Main ;
and, without committing himself to the plan, in any public document,
he entertained the hope of leading the armies of the United States in
an attack on their Southern neighbors. It is interesting to observe
O O
that he had thus enlisted himself in an enterprise not differing
widely from that which proved, a few years after, to be the crisis in
the life of Aaron Hurr.
179'J.] HAMILTON AND MIRANDA. 141
Miranda's acquaintance in the United States was as early as the
Revolutionary War. He was said to know more of its families and
parties than any man in the country.1 His talk of the
" Their plans.
resources of South America, and the ease with which the
Spanish yoke could be thrown off, fascinated young men eager for
adventure ; and all the correspondence of the time shows that such
schemes were largely entertained among adventurous people in the
West.2 The project took definite form when, in December, 1797,
four men, who professed to be commissioners of disaffected South
American constituents, prepared a "Convention" in Paris. These
men were Miranda, Sucre, Salas, and Duperon. Their plan pro
posed a union of an English fleet and an American army with the
Spanish rebels who were to throw off the yoke. The ninth article
of this Convention proposed that the United States should be in
vited to join in a treaty. The possession of the two Floridas and of
Louisiana was to be guaranteed to them, and, in exchange, the United
States was to furnish to South America an auxiliary force of iive
thousand infantry and two thousand cavalry. Miranda, in an "adroit
letter" to President Adams, written on the 24th of March, commu
nicated to him the probability of such an effort, without giving the
details of the plan. To Hamilton he wras more explicit: "It seems
that the time of our emancipation draws near, and that the estab
lishment of liberty in the whole Continent of the New World is
entrusted to us by Providence. The only danger which I foresee is
the introduction of French principles, which will poison liberty in its
cradle, and will finish soon by destroying yours."
While the President himself looked incredulously on a scheme so
bold, three members of his cabinet approved it, and were in cor
respondence with Hamilton to carry it forward. In Hamilton's mind
it involved the necessity that he should be the head of the movement.
So soon, therefore, as the new army was ordered, he was eager to
secure its real command. Adams wished to make him second,
under General Knox, — Washington being the nominal head. But
Hamilton refused subordination to any but his old chief. Wash
ington had already pronounced in Hamilton's favor. Pinckney was
made second, and Knox third, the President himself acceding to
Washington's proposal.3 Hamilton found himself, therefore, so near
the object of his wishes as to be at the head of an army of West-
1 John Adams to Lloyd, March 6, 1815.
2 Thus Philip Nolan, quoted in Moor's deposition of 1797, said, "I look forward to the
conquest of Mexico by the United States, and I expect my patron and friend, the General,
will, in such an event, give me a conspicuous command." The General was Wilkinson.
3 See a number of interesting letters on this subject from distinguished Federalists in
chap. vi. of Life and Letters of George Caliot. By Henry Cabot Lodge. 1877-
142 ADMINISTRATIONS OF ADAMS AND JEFFERSON. [CiiAi>. VI.
em riflemen, with easy access to Orleans, and a good cause of quarrel
with Spain. Miranda gave good reason to hope that the English
fleet, an important part of the combination, would be ready in time.
But all these plans, fine-drawn at the very best, fell to pieces,
influence of when to the game of European polities, -which thus far had
Napoleon. been played by the cooperation of many bunglers, there
came one master player. Napoleon Bonaparte took in one hand the
varied enterprises which had confused the Directory, and which the
Directory had so mismanaged. With his accession to power, the
envoys of the American Government were again welcomed cour
teously. The seizure of American vessels ceased for a time. Navi
gation on the Mississippi was again permitted. Cause of war with
France was thus removed
from the complicated plan.
The opposition to the Ad
ministration, and the na
tional dislike of standing
armies, were too intense to
permit a large armed force
at Cincinnati without an
ostensible object. It has
since been surmised, by
some of the few persons
who have paid any atten
tion to this piece of history,
which at the time was care
fully concealed, that if Mr.
Adams had promptly given
his support to Miranda, the
English Government would
~
Aaron Burr. liave done the same. In
that event Hamilton and
Wilkinson would probably have captured Orleans when the high
water of 1799 raised the Mississippi. The invasion of South America
would have followed, and Hamilton's after career would have been
left to the chances of war in Venezuela. It is interesting to observe
that one of his anxieties in assuming the command which Washing
ton's favor had secured for him, was his fear that he might not have
the choice of his subordinates, and in particular that lie might have
Aaron Burr as quartermaster in his new campaign. So sensitively do
men dread the presence of those who hate them.1
1 It would seem as if all who were interested in this first "filibustering" expedition
wished to conceal the record of it. The fact that the new army made rendezvous ;it Fort
1800.] DEFEAT OF THE FEDERALISTS. 143
As the nation became a nation, and grew unconsciously to that
unity of life which the makers of the Constitution hoped for, Theriseof
but dared not expect, national parties took more definite Partles-
form. When the election of 1800 approached, the Federalists named
Adams and Charles Cotesworth Pinekney, of South Carolina, with
the general wish that Adams might be first and Pinekney second.
AVith this critical election the Federal party lost its control I)efeat of th<>
of the nation, and it never regained it under that name. Kl'>k'r!d"ts-
The loss is generally ascribed to that distrust of the people which,
from the beginning, hampered the leaders of that party, and which
deserved the recompense of failure. But this interpretation comes
after the fact, and is not warranted by the details of the contest.
There can be no doubt that the national position assumed by Mr.
Adams in the controversy with France, increased his popularity in
the nation at large. The distrust of him which was entertained by
Hamilton and by other of the Federal leaders, rather improved his
popularity in States not immediately under their control. The Se
dition Act. was the cause, and, so far as the final vote shows, the chief
cause, of Adams's defeat, and it was only within a single State that
that cause proved important. That State was New York. In the
two elections of IT'.MJ and 1800 she won the title of the " Empire
State," by exerting the power which she has so often used since in
determining the election of President. In 1796, her twelve electors,
chosen by the Legislature, voted for Adams. As early as April,
1800, the new Legislature was chosen, which would elect the pres
idential electors in November of that year. This State election
proved decisive. The city of New York had the year before given a
Federal majority of nine hundred. This year it elected Republican
members to the Legislature. This result was due in part to local con
tentions among the great families which then governed New York,
and in part to the skill with which Aaron Burr conducted the canvass,
he having had the address to see that his own name, which was at
the moment unpopular, was not on the Republican ticket. More sur
prising to the Federalists was their loss of the western district of the
State. This loss was due to the severity of proceedings under the
Sedition Law. As the result of these elections, it was known, early
in 1800, that the Legislature of New York would give all its twelve
votes in the Electoral College for the Republican candidates. Only
Washington, was of course known at the time, and roused the jealousy of the Spanish
ambassador. But no publication of the plans of Government was made in Congress or
elsewhere. Even in the Life of Pickering, who was Secretary of State, no allusion is made
to probable war in the West. The Life of Hamilton furnishes little information. But no
doubt of the facts, as stated in the text, will rise in the mind of readers of John Adams's
Life, of his letter to Lloyd, of Stoddard's Louisiana, of the letters of Miranda, and of Ham
ilton's unpublished private correspondence with Wilkinson.
144 ADMINISTRATIONS OF ADAMS AND JEFFERSON. [CHAP. VI.
the year before, the Republicans of the State had attempted to choose
the electors by popular vote, by districts. They would gladly have
acceded to such a plan, which, in practice, would have nearly neu
tralized the vote of the State. But the Federalists, confident in
their strength, had refused to make this concession.
All Mr. Adams's gains elsewhere were insufficient to overcome this
defection of the State of New York. In face of the discouragement
of such an event, which made almost a foregone conclusion of the
presidential election, his friends gave him seven more votes in Penn
sylvania than he received in ITi'O, and three more in North Caro
lina. He lost two in Maryland, ;ind that State gave one vote less
than in 179o. The result of the election, therefore, gave Jefferson
and Burr, the Democratic candidates, seventy-three votes each, while
Mr. Adams had but sixty-five.
Warned by the risks which the last contest had disclosed, the I\e-
HurraiKi publican electors voted "solidly v for each candidate. Burr
,u-m-rsoii. ]ia(j ils m;niy votes as Jefferson. This consolidation of the
Democratic vote brought about a result which may have been antic
ipated by the makers of the Constitution, but was none the more ac
ceptable to Jefferson. As he had received the same number of votes
with Burr, the election was thrown into the House of Representa
tives, under the constitutional provision. The Federalists were there
fore called upon to say which of the two Democratic candidates they
preferred. After some hesitation, they determined to support Bun-.
Hamilton used all his influence with the Federal leaders in Jefferson's
favor. In Burr the Northern States, who had all supported Adams,
had at least a Northern man to vote for. Here was also the best
chance for the discomfiture of Jefferson, whom the Federalists hated
with a very perfect hatred. A long and bitter contest in the House
followed. Thirty-five ballots were taken, with the same result. —
eight States voting for Jefferson, six for Burr, and two being divided.
At last, at a Federal caucus, " all acknowledged that nothing but des
perate measures, remained, which several were disposed to adopt, and
but few were willing to disapprove." The words are those of Bayard
of New Jersey. On the thirty-sixth ballot, the Federalist votes ot'l
Vermont and Maryland were wanting. The result gave Jefferson ten
States, and he was elected. He owed his election to the influence of
Hamilton and the action of Bayard in caucus. The extreme Federal
ists wished to pi-event any election, and leave the President of the
Senate the acting President for an interregnum. But Jefferson and
his friends were determined, " one and all, that the day such an act
was passed, the Middle States would arm, and no such usurpation
should be submitted to." These are Jefferson's words, and John
1802.] PURCHASE OF LOUISIANA. 145
Randolph afterwards added the local color and detail. " Had we
not," he said, " the promise of Darke's Brigade, and of the arms at
Harper's Ferry, which he engaged to secure ? " All such plots be
came unnecessary, when the Federalists, under Hamilton's and Bay
ard's influence, gave way. And in after years all parties would have
been glad to consign such plots to oblivion.1
So soon as Jefferson was inaugurated, it proved that his dread of a
consolidated government had vanished, now that it came jefferson-g
under his control. The forecast of Hamilton proved true, pohc-v-
that Jefferson would calculate on what would promote his own inter
est. The inaugural speech contained a phrase which afterwards be
came proverbial : " We are all Republicans ; — we are all Federal
ists ; " and as the nation became a nation indeed, and grew in strength,
Jefferson, and his followers in the presidency, were as willing as any
men to wield the national power. His first act, the purchase of Louis
iana, was quite outside all constitutional provisions. It was wholly
justified by the great necessity ; and the results have shown that no
single act of an American President, down to Lincoln's emancipation
of the slaves, has been so important. But no strict construction of
the Constitution permitted any such act, and this Jefferson and his
advisers knew.
Indeed, the purchase of the immense region known as Louisiana
was no plan of his, or of theirs. On his accession to office, pun.hasoof
he found the negotiation with France in the most promising LouiMulia-
condition which it had presented for many years. All immediate
cause of quarrel with France was over. Jefferson, moreover, was
ready to do anything that France asked because she asked it without
asking questions. It soon became an open secret among diploma
tists that, by a private article in the Treaty of St. Ildefonso, signed
on the 18th of October, 1800, Spain had again ceded to France the
territory of Louisiana, — meaning, as the reader must always remem
ber, not merely the State now known under that name, but the region
north of Florida, west of the Mississippi, and east of the Rocky
Mountains and a line drawn though the Sabine, Red, and Arkansas
1 To guard against such dangers in future, Jefferson provided for a. change in the Con
stitution, and, since that time, the Vice-president and President have been designated by
the electors. In this celebrated election, the vote of South Carolina was doubtful. The
opposition to Adams in that State offered to unite on Jefferson and Pinckney, as four vears
before the State Legislature had united on Jefferson and the other Pinckney. But Charles
C. Pinckney, loyal to his leader, refused to consent to such an arrangement. Had he
agreed to it, he, and not Burr, would have had the second number of votes. Pinckney
would have been Vice-president and Jefferson President. That is to say, the same condi
tion of things that had resulted from the election of 1796 would now have recurred, but
with the Democrats first and the Federalists second. Probably the makers of the Consti
tution foresaw such contingencies.
VOL. iv. 10
146 ADMINISTRATIONS OF ADAMS AND JEFFERSON. [CHAT. VI.
rivers.1 At home the Government was goaded by constant appeals
from the Western States to secure open passage to the Gulf of Mex
ico for their products. Actuated by a sort of madness, which has
never been fully explained, the Spanish Intendant, Morales, in 1802,
suspended a second time even the right of deposit at Orleans.2
Again the Western States roused themselves, and protested that they
would take the city and sweep the Spaniards, if necessary, into the
sea. Impelled by their indignation, Jefferson sent new powers to
Livingston, our Minister in France, to whom Monroe was joined,
and bade the two propose to the First Consul the purchase of the
island on which Orleans stands, and the right of passage to the sea.
The commissioners were authori/ed to offer the First Consul two
and a half million dollars. Before Monroe's arrival, however, Liv-
1 In the map, entitled " Acquisition and Transfer of Territory, 17SO to 1870," published
in vol. i. of Tlte. Ninth Census of the Unit-d States, 1870, the "Province of Louisiana,
1803," appears as extending from the mouth of the Mississippi, on the southeast, to a north
western limit, on the Pacific coast, including Orciron and Washington Territory. This
map is erroneous, inasmuch as the Province of Louisiana did not extend, either under Spain
or France, west of the Hocky Mountains. The mistake probably arose from want of care in
distinguishing between the line agreed upon by the United States and Spain to mark their
boundaries in the Florida Treaty of 1819, and that line understood to be the western boun
dary of Louisiana in the treaty of 1803. It is worth while to correct the error, as it lias
been repeated in popular school-books since the publication of the official map in the vol
ume of the Census, and probably on its authority.
The original territory of Louisiana, as a French province, comprised, under the title of
"The Government of Louisiana," in general terms, the valleys of the Mississippi, the
Ohio, the Missouri, and the Illinois. At the close of the French war in 17G3, France ceded
to Great Britain all that portion of Louisiana lying east of the Mississippi and north of
the Iberville, or Bayou Manchac, about a hundred miles above Orleans; and at the same
time transferred to Spain all the rest of her territory on the western side of the Missis
sippi. In 1800, the province was retroceded to France by Spain by the treaty of St. II-
defonso, " with the same extent," so runs the treaty, "that it now has in the hands of
Spain, and that it had when France possessed it." And it was precisely these words,
quoted from the Treaty of St. Ildefonso, that were; chosen to describe the Territory of
Louisiana when Napoleon sold it to the United States in 1803. Its southern portion was
bounded on the west by the region held or claimed by Spain ; the northern portion by
the mountain ranges which separate the Pacific slope from the region whose waters How
into the valleys of the Missouri and the Mississippi. In 1819, however, the United States
and Spain agreed, in the treaty of Florida, upon the dividing line between their possessions
west of the Mississippi, Spain agreeing to relinquish all claim to any territory east and
north of it, and the United States surrendering her pretensions to all south and west of it.
This line was from the mouth of the Sabine to the 32d parallel, thence north to the
Ked Iliver, and along that river to the 100th meridian, thence north to the Arkansas,
and along that river to its source in the 42d parallel, and thence west to the Pacific.
It is this boundary which is erroneously designated in the census map of " Acquisition and
Transfer of Territory" as the western boundary of the "Province of Louisiana, 1803."
See an exhaustive discussion of the whole question in an article by Albert Sali.-bury, in
the Wisconsin Journal of Education for May, 1880.
2 October 16, 1802. The measures almost caused famine in Orleans. His own statement
was, that, by the Treaty of Amiens, Spain had regained a direct commerce with England ;
that the " riirht of deposit " had only been justified by the state of war, and that it ceased
because peace had returned.
1802.] PURCHASE OF LOUISIANA. 147
ingston was met by a proposal which astounded him. Napoleon was
sure by this time that the existing peace with England would not last
long. England had the supremacy of the sea, and so soon as war -^'
began, her fleet would seize Orleans and the mouths of the river.
When the journals announced that the new American envoy was on/X^
his way, he sent for Marbois, his Minister of the Treasury, and bade
him meet the commissioners immediately and offer to sell them the
whole region for fifty million francs. Marbois was in every way a
proper person for the negotiation. He had been an envoy of France
in the Revolution, had lived in Philadelphia, and was intimate with
Livingston, the head of the American mission, who at that time was
American Secretary for Foreign Affairs. Marbois told the voting
Consul that the price proposed was too small, and obtained permis
sion to name harder terms at the outset. Accordingly, MS soon as
Livingston arrived. Marbois met him with the proposal to sell him
this empire for one hundred million francs, with the additional pro
posal that the United States should pay to the American merchants
who had suffered from French spoliation all their fair claims against
France.
Livingston was surprised at an offer so extraordinary. Marbois
hastened to say that he knew the sum was exorbitant, but the Con
sul had suggested that the Americans could borrow it. Livingston
and his companions asked time to send the proposal home. But
delay was dangerous, for England might at any moment declare war
by seizing the mouths of the river. Marbois pressed Livingston in
turn to name a price, and finally suggested that lie would try to per
suade the Consul to accept sixty million francs. All this was the
by-play of diplomacy. As we have said, Marbois was instructed to
take fifty million francs, if he could get it. The bargaining ended
when the American envoys agreed to give sixty million francs, in
stocks bearing six per cent, interest, and to assume the payment of
all that was due from France to her own merchants, not exceeding
twenty million francs more. As the United States Government, for
three quarters of a century, has neglected to pay these claims, they
have proved to be only a feather-weight in the great negotiation.
It is curious to see that, when Marbois went back to his principal,
well pleased with his success in obtaining ten million francs more
than he was authorized to sell for, Bonaparte rebuked him that he
had not obtained a hundred million. But when the secretary re
minded him of his own original proposal, he expressed himself de
lighted with the result. " There is nothing left to ask," he cried ;
" sixty million for an occupation that will not last a clay, perhaps.
Let France enjoy this unexpected capital." In fact, he dictated a
148 ADMINISTRATIONS OF ADAMS AND JEFFERSON. [CHAP. VI.
decree for the construction of five canals with it. But the American
payment was sunk in the renewal of the fleet of transports gathered
at Boulogne for the invasion of England, and in the equipment of the
other fleet which was scattered at Trafalgar. Napoleon, however, had
at heart a policy which looked further. In his joy of success he said,
" This accession of territory strengthens forever the power of the
United States. I have given England a rival."
The consent of the commissioners to this great purchase was not
HOW H was received in America with the enthusiasm which it deserved.
They did not themselves in the least know how well they
had builded. When, in the previous negotiation, Talleyrand had
Flat-boat going down the Mississippi.
asked if the Americans wanted the whole, Livingston had stoutly said
" No," and had said truly. In one of his letters, he was careful to
impress on the French that the United States would not fora hundred
years make any settlements west of the river. " I told him we had
no wisli to extend our boundary across the Mississippi." These were
Livingston's words, and the same indifl'erence to territorial aggran
dizement may be observed in all the public utterances of the time.
Before the invention of the steamboat, indeed, the regions acquired
were so nearly inaccessible that statesmen may be pardoned who did
not foresee their exceeding value to the nation.
It will be more convenient to the reader to anticipate in this chap
ter the course of events, so far as to trace the first results of this
1805.] AAROX BURR'S EXPEDITION, 149
great acquisition. The Government took possession of the new ter
ritory by a public act on the 20th of December, 1803. General Wil
kinson, so long in the secret pay of Spain, was now commander of
the American army, and, with Claiborne, Governor of the Territory
of Louisiana, was authorized to receive possession. For this purpose
the Spanish Government made the cession to the French Prefect,
Laussat, who had been appointed, as it proved, for this purpose of
ceremony only. The joy of the West was unbounded. At the East,
the wisest men looked gloomily on the prospect of the depletion of
the old States by emigration into these rich valleys.
With the next summer a new element displayed itself. Aaron Burr
had been chosen Vice-president in 1800. But he had lost
all his friends in both parties in the election. In the course Hamilton
of a bitter political quarrel in New York, in 1804, he chal
lenged Hamilton to a duel. Hamilton was mad enough to accept
the challenge, and was killed.1 Even after this event Burr presided
in the Senate; but, with the election of 1804, when Jefferson was
reflected and George Clinton became Vice-president, Burr lost office,
as he had lost friends before. Moved by the very same spirit that
had disposed Hamilton to coquet with Miranda, he took up
the thread of the very same adventure which Hamilton had ter^^
been forced to lay down, and after some private correspond
ence in the East with men who were to furnish money, and prob
ably with Miranda, he went down the Mississippi River, almost as a
conqueror seeking a new empire. To take the expressive phrase
which the West has since invented, Burr was " prospecting " on this
1 There is a prevalent error in regard to the house in which Hamilton died, which is
worth correcting, if only to show how little tradition is to be trusted. The duel between
him and Burr was fought at Weehawken, in New Jersey ; Hamilton, mortally wounded,
was immediately taken back to New York, the boat landing at what is now the foot of
Gansevoort Street, and he was carried to the nearest house, that of his friend, William Bav-
ard. This house stood between the present Greenwich and Washington Streets, about the
centre of what is now Horatio Street. The common belief is (see Historical Magazine, vol.
x., 1866), that the house now standing at No. 82 Jane Street was the Bayard House where
Hamilton died. But that house stood a block farther north — on Horatio Street, as we have
just explained — and the house at No 82 Jane Street was another country residence known
at that time as the Ludlow House. The estates joined on the line of Jane Street, and this
house occupied the block south of the line, as the Bayard House did the block north of it.
When, about half a century ago, the land of that neighborhood was filled in from about the
line of Washington Street to the present bank of the river, and streets were opened and
graded, the Ludlow House was turned round and placed on the south side of Jane Street
— No. 82 — and the Bayard House was demolished.
The late Hon. Henry Meigs, long an eminent and highly esteemed citizen of New York,
occupied both these houses alternately for many years. His children grew up in them, and
from two of his sons, Henry and Charles, these facts are obtained. One of these gentlemen
has preserved a water-color drawing by his father of the Ludlow House, while his family
occupied it, and of its identity with the house No. 82 Jane Street, there can be no question.
1-30 ADMINISTRATIONS OF ADAMS AND JKFFEKSOX. [('HAT. VI.
journey. What his plans Avere, history is not yet able to say pre
cisely. Probably they Avere not precise. Probably he would have
found it as difficult to explain them clearly as it is to the historian
after se\renty years. Those Avho Avanted to make their fortunes in
adventure, thought he was going to take possession of Mexico. To
those Avhose suspicions he Avanted to disarm, he said he Avas going to
settle on the Baron Bastrop's lands on the Washita River. Those
Avho thought they knew, supposed he Avas going to take Orleans and
on Blennerhassett's Island.
establish a Western empire. He undoubtedly interested adventur
ous people in the West, who still maintained the hatred for Spain
Avhich the Spanish authorities had so steadily fanned. Thus he Avould
piniip NO- cultivate the indignation Avhich had been roused by the vio
lation of the safeguard of Nolan, and the death of that pop
ular young adATenturer. Philip Nolan was an agent of Wilkinson's,
Avho had gone into Texas to collect horses for the Spanish post at
Orleans, under a pass from the Governor of Texas and Coahuila.
1806.] AARON BURR'S EXPEDITION. 151
The Spanish Governor, alarmed by new orders from home, had sent
to arrest him. In the skirmish which followed, Nolan was killed.
All his companions were captured and sent to the mines. Event
ually one was shot. From the time of La Salle down, Spain had
been jealous of any interference from the East with her silver mines
in New Mexico and Arizona. Her statesmen, although purblind,
could foresee what has come in the present generation. To this
jealousy Nolan and his companions owed their fate, and every such
act of cruelty on the part of Spanish viceroys hastened the inev
itable issue. The death of the Kempers in Florida was a similar
transaction.
On such chords Burr played on his first voyage down the river.
He visited Blennerhassett's Island, in the Ohio, not far Bi,,nnerhas.
from Marietta, and made the acquaintance of Harman Bleu- sett-
nerhassett and of his charming wife. They had emigrated from Ire
land in 1T1KS, and had made of the island what the writers of that
day describe as a paradise. Blennerhassett himself was quite ready
by this time for new adventure, and, when Burr wrote to him after
wards, enlisted readily in the enterprise. From point to Rurr-SI,r0g-
point, as Burr stopped on the river, he was received with lv>iiS
enthusiasm. Public dinners were made for him; and, in vague
terms, he intimated that he was to come again at the head of an
army. When he met Wilkinson, he had long private conferences
with him. These were followed through the next winter by corre
spondence in cipher. Of what passed in the conferences, the ac
counts differ absolutely. Burr declares that Wilkinson committed
himself entirely to his views. Wilkinson declares that lie declined
all complicity. As we now know that Wilkinson was a traitor to his
country long before, very little weight is to be given to his uncon
firmed asseveration.
Encouraged by his reception, Burr made the attempt, in the sum
mer of 1806, of which he had given such fair warning. But .Teffcrson-s
Jefferson at last roused himself to take notice of an enter- actlon-
prise so audacious. The Spanish Government had been watching it
from the first with the most intense curiosity. The best account of
it would now be found in their archives, for all that the Government
of the United States knew of it was destroyed when the State De
partment was burned in 1814, — if it had not been earlier destroyed
by order of Jefferson. So vindictive did his treatment of Burr ap
pear afterwards, that it seemed as if he wished to lure him to his
fate by the indifference with which his first movements were met,
and by the civility with which Wilkinson was permitted to treat him.
However this may be, when Jefferson acted he acted decisively.
152 ADMINISTRATIONS OF ADAMS AND JEFFERSON. [CHAP. VI.
Burr made his first rendezvous at Blennerhassett's Island. Blen-
nerhassett himself had provided boats and provisions, and arms and
ammunition were here placed on the boats. A considerable party of
men joined the expedition here, and recruits were added at different
points on the way. But Jefferson published a proclamation denoun
cing the whole scheme, and the United States marshals of Virginia,
Ohio, and Kentucky made attempts, more or less zealous, to arrest it.
The expedition, as it advanced, was flying from pursuit while going
Parade of Burr's Force.
to conquest ; and the danger from behind was such that the arrange
ments made to secure victory before were at best sadly hurried.
Still he stopped at the various forts on the way, asked favors and
received them, and gained a few recruits. At the mouth of the
Cumberland River, two boats and a few men joined him. He now
had thirteen boats and sixty men. He drew them up on the shore
and addressed them, but did not reveal his plans. This parade was
subsequently called the array in arms of a military force.
1807.] BURR'S TRIAL FOR TREASON.
With this force Burr came within thirty miles of Natchez, to learn
that Wilkinson had betrayed him. That is his way of stating it.
Wilkinson says he had received Swartwout, an envoy of Endofthe
Burr's, had amused him by pretended sympathy, and had eaterPri*e-
dismissed him. Wilkinson probably changed his mind at some period
in the matter, and determined to stand by Jefferson rather than Burr;
or, on Burr's first visit, he may have well supposed that all this was
done with Jefferson's connivance. The little party found the mili
tia of the Territory in arms to oppose them, and were all taken to
Natchez as prisoners of war. A grand jury was impanelled at once.
True to the general sympathy for Burr, they presented the military
force raised against him as a grievance, and declared that he was
guilty of no crime. Burr awaited no further inquiry. He disguised
himself as a boatman, and disappeared in the wilderness. But in his
attempt to cross the country to the Atlantic, he was recognized in
Alabama, arrested, and sent home for trial. In 1807 he was tried at
Richmond for treason. The Government attempted to make
out that he had enlisted troops within its jurisdiction for an
attack on one of its allies, the King of Spain. The charge was, that
this constituted treason. Judge Marshall, who presided, instructed
the jury that the overt act of embodying an army must take place
within the State where the trial was held. On this point Burr was
acquitted. Jefferson's rage at his escape could not contain itself.
But from that moment Burr was without a shadow of his old power.
After times have seen many similar enterprises attempted in the
United States, mostly against Spain or Mexico ; but none has ever
attracted the universal attention of Burr's. Mystery has always sur
rounded its history. The downfall of a man who came within a single
vote of holding the highest office in the state, to be an adventurer
without friends, often literally a beggar, was a fall too profound not
to be noted by the moralists. A complete absence of moral prin
ciple is enough to account for such utter failure.
CHAPTER VII.
JEFFERSON AND MADISON.
THE BARISARY STATES. — WAR WITH TRIPOLI. — THE IMPORTANCE OK LOUISIANA.
— INCREASE OF POPULATION AND WEALTH. — JEFFERSON'S CREED AND ins 1'oucv.
— SETTLEMENT OF THE WEST. — LEWIS AND CLARKE'S EXPEDITION. — FOREIGN
COMMERCE AND ITS DIFFICULTIES. — THE BERLIN AND MILAN DECREES, AND THE
ORDERS IN COUNCIL. — CONDITION OF THE NAVY. — THE AFFAIR OF THE " CHESA
PEAKE." — THE EMHAUOO. — MADISON'S ACCESSION. — THE " PRESIDENT " AND THE
"LITTLE BELT.'' — BATTLE OF TIPPECANOE. — CLAY" AND CALIIOUN — PREPARA
TIONS FOR WAR, AND ITS DECLARATION.
To Mr. Jefferson's administration was due a partial settlement of
Relations a long-standing grievance, the existence of which was not
Bari'ary0 altogether creditable to the management of the foreign
affairs of the government in its earliest years. American
ships had been compelled to submit to spoliation by the corsairs of
the Barbary States for twenty years, and from time to time large
sums had been paid to redeem the captured crews from slavery. In
1787, a treaty was ratified with Morocco, for which Congress paid
eighty thousand dollars; in 1790 another was made with Algiers, by
which it was agreed to pay forty thousand dollars for the release of
thirteen Americans held as slaves in that State, a large amount in
cash besides, and an annual tribute of twenty-five thousand dollars as
the price of exemption from future aggressions. Delay occurring in
the first remittance, still further exaction was submitted to, and a
ship of war, costing about a hundred thousand dollars, was sent to
the Dey, ostensibly as a present to his daughter. Eventually the
treaty was made to cost even more than these large sums ; as the
tribute was to be paid, when required, in naval stores at stipulated
prices, and these were so far below the cost of the stores that the
expenditure was often several hundred per cent, above the estimate,
The humiliation that was submitted to at the hands of these pirates
was as remarkable as the consent to purchase their forbearance. The
subsidy for 1800 was sent to Algiers in the frigate Greor</e Washing
ton, commanded by Captain William Cambridge. The Dey ordered
his own tribute to the Sultan — consisting partly of slaves and wild
1801.]
WAR WITH TRIPOLI.
155
animals — to be taken on board and carried to Constantinople, and
that the American flag should be hauled down and his own hoisted in
its place. Bainbridge assented, by advice of the American Consul,
but declared that he hoped, should he ever again be sent with trib
ute, he might deliver it from the mouths of his guns. Unless, as
has been asserted, he ran up the national flag again after leaving
port, the first American ship that ever passed the Dardanelles sailed
MS the vassal of a vassal. " You pay me tribute," the Dey had said,
•• by which you become my slaves ! "
The next year (1801) war was declared by Tripoli, because the
Dey was dissatisfied with his pecuniary relations with the w.irwjt:,
United States. It was a war of naval engagements, — al- Triiw1'
most of duels, — and in these battles some of the men who in later
Tripoli.
years placed their names highest in the naval annals of their country,
won their first laurels. Indeed, these operations in the Mediterranean,
for the next two or three years, Avere of importance, not so much for
the immediate result — for that could have been secured at any time
— as for the fact that in them and the men who conducted them we
find the germ of that navy which in the next war saved the country
from the most absolute humiliation, if not from political destruction.
And nothing exemplifies so pointedly the extreme partisanship of the
times as that Jefferson and his followers — who opposed the creation
of an efficient navy because the Federalists demanded it — would not
156 JEFFERSON. [CHAP. VII.
or could not see that just so far forth as America had reason to lie
Jefferson's pi'oud of her naval achievements in the Mediterranean, just
gunboats. SQ £ar g[ie j]a(j reasOn to be ashamed of Jefferson's — em
phatically Jefferson's — naval system at home. By that it was as
sumed to be sufficient for the defence of a continent that a small fleet
of gunboats should be kept in dock-yards, carefully housed to protect
them from the weather, ready to be floated in case of emergency.
The first engagement of note was fought in August by Lieutenant
Sterrett, in the Enterprise, of twelve guns and ninety men, witli a
Tripolitan vessel of fourteen guns, off Malta. The enemy had struck
after a two hours' fight, and then treacherously discharged another
broadside when the Americans had left their guns and were cheer
ing for their victory. The battle began again, and again the Tripo-
litans struck, when defeated in their attempt to board the Enterprise.
Then ranging under her quarter, they once more resumed the fight,
hoisting a bloody flag. Sterrett raked his treacherous enemy from
stem to stern, shot awray his mizzen-mast, riddled his hull, killed
and wounded fifty of his men, and kept up this terrible fire till the
captain begged for mercy with frantic gestures, and tossed his colors
into the sea. He wras ordered to throw overboard also all his arms
and ammunition, his remaining masts were cut away, his ship was
completely dismantled, and then, under a jury-mast and a single sail,
he was left to make his way home, with Lieutenant Sterrett's com
pliments to the Dey. Notwithstanding the length of the fight, and
the repeated attempts to take the Americans by surprise, they did
not lose a single man.
As a naval power, these semi-barbarians were contemptible ; what
Minor en- fighting faculty they had, they exhibited only in hand-to-
gagements. ]iaric[ .encounters, just as they were formidable as pirates in
boarding peaceful merchant ships. Naval engagements were frequent,
in which their vessels and crews were destroyed, wholly or in part,
without the loss of a man to the Americans. In July, 1802, the frig
ate Constellation, Captain Murray, fought nine gunboats, off Tripoli,
and drove five of them ashore, while the others escaped into the har
bor. In June, the next year, a Tripolitan cruiser of twenty-two guns
was driven into a bay seven leagues east of Tripoli, where she an
chored with springs on her cables, while nine gunboats were sweep
ing along the shore to her assistance, and a body of cavalry appeared
on the beach. The John Adams, Captain Rodgers, and the Enter
prise, Lieutenant Isaac Hull, stood in and gave battle at point-blank
range. In three quarters of an hour the enemy's guns were silenced,
and her people leaped overboard. The Americans manned their
boats to take possession, when a boat-load of Tripolitans returned to
1804.]
THE MEDITERRANEAN SQUADRON.
157
her and reopened fire. The Adams replied, and in a few minutes
the Tripolitan's colors came down, then her guns were all discharged
at once, and the next instant she blew up with an explosion that
tore her hull to fragments.
In 1803, the squadron in the Mediterranean numbered nine ships,
carrying two hundred and fourteen guns. The Philadelphia cap
tured a Moorish cruiser which the Governor of Tangier had author
ized to prey upon American commerce. Commodore Preble entered
that harbor with four of his fleet, and demanded an explanation 6f
the Emperor, who disavowed the act of the Governor, and the treaty
between the United States and
Morocco was renewed. The
Philadelphia soon after struck
upon a reef in the harbor of
Tripoli, when in pursuit of a
blockade-runner. In this help
less condition she was attacked
by gunboats, and Captain Bain-
bridge was compelled to surren
der. She promised to be a val
uable prize to the enemy, when,
floated by an unusually high
tide, she was hauled off and re
fitted.
But Bainbridge's misfortune
was remedied by the daring act
of a young lieutenant, Stephen
Decatur. Running into the
harbor one night in February,
1804, in a small prize vessel
which had been named the Intrepid, he made fast, under pretence
of being a merchantman and that he had lost his anchors, to the
Philadelphia. At a given signal, his men rose from the deck and
poured over the frigate's side and through her ports. With a cry of
" Amerikanos ! " the terrified Tripolitans ran below or plunged into
the water. In twenty-five minutes, Decatur cleared the decks, car
ried combustibles to every part of the ship, and set fire to them.
Regaining his own vessel, he cast off and sailed out to sea as the
flames ran up the rigging, and the heated guns of the burning ship
fired her last broadside.
In July, Preble was off Tripoli with his fleet. On the 3d of Au
gust he entered the harbor, and for two hours bombarded the town
from his mortar-boats, while his frigates and schooners attacked the
Stephen Decatur.
158 JEFFERSON. [CiiAr. VII.
batteries. It was intended that the six gunboats should engage the
enemy's boats at close quarters ; but one of them fell off to
Wiit of leeward, another had her lateen yard shot away, and a third
obeyed an erroneous signal of recall. The other throe
closed with the enemy. One of them, commanded by Lieutenant
James Decatur, a brother of Stephen, attacked a Tripolitan gun
boat, and fired a volley, when her antagonist struck. As Decatur
stepped upon her deck, the Tripolitan commander shot him through
the head, the boats drifted apart, and for the time being the enemy
escaped.
Stephen Decatur, in command of another boat, poured a shower
of musket-balls into the nearest enemy, and then laying alongside,
boarded. His men, dividing into two parties, charged around each
side of the open hatchway, bayonetted all who resisted, or who did
not leap overboard, and compelled the surrender of the rest. De
catur next turned to the boat where he knew his brother had just
met his death. Throwing himself on board with his men, he sin
gled out, after a general light of twenty minutes, the Captain, who
had shot Lieutenant James Decatur. He was a large and powerful
man, and defended himself with a pike. As he made a thrust with
this, Decatur attempted to cut off the head with a blow of his sword ;
Exploits of but the blade struck the iron, and broke at the hilt. The
next thrust he partially parried with his naked arm, but the
point of the pike entered his breast. Tearing this out, he wrenched
the staff from the Turk, and grappled with him, and they rolled upon
the deck together. While the Turk strove to use his poniard, De
catur held his arm with one hand, and with the other cocked a pistol
in his own pocket, and, without drawing it, shot his antagonist. The
wound was mortal, and the dying Turk relaxed his grasp.1
While this contest was going on, a Tripolitan officer aimed a blow
at Decatur from behind ; but a voting sailor named Reuben James
interposed his arm, — according to one version, his head, because
both arms had been disabled, —and saved the life of his commander
at the expense of the arm, which was shorn clean off. Of the eighty
men in the two boats captured by Decatur, fifty-two were killed or
wounded.
A similar desperate, personal encounter occurred upon another of
the gunboats, commanded by Lieutenant Trippe, who, by the re
bound of his own boat in an attempt to board another, was left on
the deck of the enemy, with only ten men. The commanders met
1 There are various versions of this famous encounter. The one here given, from Mac
kenzie's Life of Decatur, professes to have been obtained from the hero himself by two of
his intimate friends.
1804.]
ASSAULTS UPON TRIPOLI.
159
and fought, — Trippe with a pike, his antagonist with a sabre. The
American Avas forced to the deck, covered with wounds ; but muster
ing all the strength that was left him, he succeeded in transfixing
the Turk with his pike. At the fall of their Captain, the crew, of
Decatur and the Turk.
whom twenty-one were killed or wounded, submitted. The result
of the battle was, three of the enemy's boats sunk, and three others
captured, with a loss to the Americans of only fourteen killed and
wounded.
Four other assaults were made upon the city in the course of Au
gust and September ; but with little impression, because, as it was
afterward ascertained, of the poor quality of the bomb-shells. Ex-
160 JEFFERSON. [CHAP. VII.
perience, moreover, had taught the enemy to avoid coming into close
quarters with the American gunboats, and to fight at long range.
In a cannonade which lasted three hours, Preble lost eighteen men ;
and a single hot shot from a battery, exploding the magazine of one
of his gunboats, cost him more than would have befallen him in the
capture of a half-dozen of the enemy's vessels. Though with her
stern under water, her brave crew loaded and fired a last shot from
their long gun, and gave three cheers as her decks sank under them.
Meanwhile the bomb-ketch Intrepid had been fitted up as an " in
fernal," and the night of September 4 was selected as the
Explosion . . ° L
of the in- time for sending her into the harbor. Two rooms had been
trepid.
planked up in the hold, and filled with a hundred barrels of
powder and missiles. On the deck over this were piled a hundred
and fifty heavy shells, and a large quantity of shot and fragments of
iron. Captain Richard Somers, Lieutenant Henry Wadsworth, and
eleven men were to take her in among the Tripolitan fleet, fire the
combustibles, and escape in two boats. The stars were visible, but
a thick haze overspread the water. The Intrepid, accompanied part
way by several of the smaller vessels, made for the western entrance
of the harbor, said a low farewell to her consorts, and disappeared
in the darkness. As she passed out of sight of her friends, she
came within view from the enemy's batteries, and they opened fire.
One observer, who tracked her with his night-glass, presently saw a
light move horizontally along her deck ; then it suddenly dropped
out of sight, as if carried down a hatchway, and the next instant
there was a tremendous explosion; a great column of fire shot up
from the vessel, the mast, with its rigging and canvas ablaze, rose
into the air, and bomb-shells were seen flying in every direction.
Two days afterward, thirteen mangled bodies, not one of which
could be identified, were found — some in the hulk and some in
the water. Several of them had been pierced by grape-shot. The
cause of the explosion has never been ascertained. The Intrepid
was at least a quarter of a mile from her destination when she blew
up, and probably did no damage to the enemy.
On the 10th of November, Preble was superseded by Commodore
Samuel Barren, who arrived with the President and the Constellation,
making the Mediterranean squadron the largest force the United
States had ever assembled at sea, — ten vessels, carrying two hundred
and sixty-four guns.
The reigning Bashaw of Tripoli, Jussuf Caramalli, had gained
the throne by deposing his elder brother, Harriet, who was now
an exile in Egypt. William Eaton, the American Consul at Tunis,
sought the deposed prince, and, with the sanction of the Govern-
1805.] PEACE WITH TRIPOLI. 161
ment, proposed to reinstate him. They got together a small force,
— adventurers from various nations, — and early in 1805 AUiance
marched upon Derne. Within three miles of the place, Wlthllamet-
arms and ammunition were landed from the fleet, and several vessels
took position in the harbor. On the 27th of April fire was opened
on the town and batteries. After a bombardment of an hour, which
drove the enemy from their guns, the land force, numbering Captureof
about twelve hundred, carried the works by storm, hauled Derne
down the Tripolitan flag, and raised the American flag, — the first
time it ever floated over a fortification on that side of the Atlantic.
The guns were turned upon the town, which, being assailed at the
same time from the other side, soon capitulated. The victors lost
only fourteen men.
The reigning Bashaw was now more than willing to make peace,
and on the 3d of June a treaty was negotiated by Tobias
•> Peace.
Lear, Consul-general at Algiers. All payment of tribute
was abolished ; an exchange of prisoners was effected, and for those
still remaining in the hands of the Tripolitans a ransom of sixty
thousand dollars was agreed upon. Hamet retired to Syracuse, and
the Bashaw retained custody of his wife and children, as hostages for
his peaceful behavior in the future. Two years later, Hamet, justly
thinking that he had not been fairly treated by his powerful ally,
addressed a pathetic letter " To their Most Serene Highnesses,'r —
meaning the United States Congress, — in which he said: u I have
lost my family ; I have lost my inheritance ; my acquisitions and my
fair prospects are lost also. . . . To my own individual sufferings I
ought to annex also those of my faithful people, whose attachment
to me has involved them in the same wretchedness I will not,
like the world, reproach the representatives of the American nation
with ingratitude. I rather implore their commiseration toward me,
— at least so far as to restore me to my family, and to grant me a
competence."
Eaton was as little satisfied as Hamet. That prince, Eaton be
lieved and asserted, had only been used as an instrument by the
United States to further their own purposes, to be abandoned, when
these were attained, to an unhappy fate. This treachery he ascribed
to Lear, the Consul-general, whom he accused at the same time of
betraying the best interests of his own government. Tripoli, Eaton
asserted, could have been easily taken, and the Bashaw compelled to
submit to any terms that the United States had seen fit to dictate.
On his return to this country, Congress and the Administration were
reluctant to admit the merit of his services, and even the settlement
of his accounts was delayed for years. Massachusetts was more grate-
VOL. IV. 11
162
JEFFERSOX.
[CHAP. VII.
ful; her Legislature, "desirous to perpetuate a remembrance of heroic
enterprise," presented him with ten thousand acres of land in her
province of Maine.
It was this Eaton who, in the Burr trial, was the most important
Eaton ana witness. The plan of the proposed Southern expedition had
Burr- been confided to him by Burr himself ; and it is not at all
unlikely that at the outset he was dazzled by an enterprise which
seemed to promise so much of brilliant adventure, and offered a
temptation to which he was peculiarly open from
his African experience. But there seems no good
reason for doubting his integrity of purpose when
he turned against Burr, and, whether mistakenly
or not, denounced him as having aimed, not only
at foreign conquest, but at the subversion of
/ the Federal Union.
The acquisition of Louisiana was by far
the most important transaction of
T jy > i • • .L L- i> j. -j. Importance
Jefferson s administration. Hut it ot Louisi-
was not so regarded at the time, ex
cepting by the settlers west of the Alle-
ghanies, who made no loud expressions of
their joy, and by those who thought the ac
quisition important because they believed it
would prove disastrous. As in the preced
ing administrations, the politics of Europe
engaged the chief attention of the people of
the Atlantic States, who had not yet learned
what was to be the true independence of the
nation. Nor had any public man, so far as
appears, any sufficient prescience of the
power which his country had gained when
she secured for every child rights often
given to the first born only; when she pro
vided for general education ; when she put
away the temptations and the expense of a
standing army, and virtually gave to every man who asked it, a share
Power of the ot tne public domain. It has proved that in those years,
new nation. t]iese privileges, and others closely connected with them,
were working changes in the state of affairs so great and so rapid
that history finds it difficult to record them. But the men in the
midst of them had no sense of their grandeur. They were as prone
as men always are, to say their country was going to ruin ; and they
mistook, as men are apt to do, some failure in their own plans, for a
The Sugar Plant.
1807.] INCREASE OF POPULATION AND WEALTH. 163
check in the general prosperity. Least of all, had the country learned
the great lesson that the general administration ought not in strict-
O ^
ness to be called the government of the country. In truth, it was
governed not only at Washington, but in a thousand other places.
It was governed in its town meetings, or in its State legislatures;
in the assemblies which made its ecclesiastical rules, or in the agree
ments which set on foot its emigration. In a thousand ways, under
the instinct for local government which has been the salvation of this
race since its history began, these people were governing themselves.
But the delusion still possessed most of them, as it possessed all the
writers for the press, and many of the members of the national Ad
ministration, that they were governed by the President and Congress,
as France was governed by Louis XIV. and Louis XV. The move
ments of local government are such as journals did not then record,
while the speeches in Congress, and the messages of Presidents, had
some chance for being circulated and read. The mistake is easily
accounted for which rejects the element of power that is unseen and
unheard.
Meanwhile, the population of the country nearly doubled in twenty
years, though there was, as yet, no such large number of Growthof
emigrants from Europe as Washington and other far-sighted thecountry-
men hoped for. At the end of the first ten years of the century, the
census showed a population of seven million two hundred and forty
thousand. The Abbe Raynal, in his flattering prophecy of the great
ness of the new nation, then much quoted, had fixed ten million as
the maximum number of its people. Wealth was increasing in a pro
portion vastly greater. Reference has been made, in another chapter,
to the rapid increase of the cotton crop, resulting from Whit- Tho cotton
ney's invention. From the merely nominal amount of one crop-
hundred and eighty-nine thousand pounds exported in 1791, the ex
port rose to sixty-two million pounds in 1811, the year before the war
with England, and, so soon as that war was over, to eighty-three mil
lion. That is to say, this single export multiplied one hundred and
sixty fold. There was no other important article of commerce in
which the increase was so large. But the exports in all articles,
which were valued at only eighteen million dollars in 1701, rose in
value to one hundred and eight million in 1807 — increasing six fold
in sixteen years. This increase was not steadv. There was flux and
reflux, caused chiefly by the wantonness of foreign wars and the fol
lies of legislation at home. But, in face of all obstacles, and while
private fortunes were often wrecked in changes so sudden, the nation
was increasing in strength in a proportion larger than those ever
dreamed who thought they were its rulers. Of what was visible in.
164
JEFFERSON.
[CHAP. VII.
Jefferson'
creed
its prosperity, the features most important were its foreign com
merce, and the shipbuilding and fisheries which were tributary to
this, the emigration to the West, and the exploration of the wilder
ness. The improvement of internal communications, and the devel
opment of manufactures were not, though begun, so obvious till the
second decade of the century, though in both directions a beginning
was made.
In this first decade, it was the great good fortune of the country
that Jefferson, elected President after a struggle of such
bitterness, was committed, in every form of language, to
the statement that the people could be intrusted with the manage
ment of their affairs.
True, it proved on
5,, many occasions that
Jefferson was not
able to resist the
temptations which
press on all men in
authority. He often
thought he knew
better than the peo
ple he had praised.
But in his long an
tagonism with Wash
ington and Adams,
he had constantly
owned, what was at
bottom his political
creed, that the less
men were governed
from above the better, and the more they governed themselves, the
wiser would the government be. Whenever, therefore, he yielded
to temptation, and forced a policy on an unwilling nation, he knew,
and all men. knew, that he contradicted his own theory, and he often
blundered. His was a character of not uncommon type, which starts
in life with lofty principles and purposes, but is ruled by circum
stances, and often led into courses directly opposed to what were
once cherished convictions.
It was a misfortune that he fancied himself a philosopher ; for he
and char- was n°t onei in any real sense of that word. But in his
residence in France, he had made acquaintance with those
fanciful speculators among the Encyclopaedists, who thought that the
world was to be at once made over on the plans of an advanced
Whitney's Cotton Gin (from the Original Model
1801.] THE PRESIDENT'S POLICY. 165
philanthropy. Many of these men in Europe had come to an un
timely end in the horrors of the Revolution. So soon as the young
Napoleon took the helm, little indulgence was given to their dreams
or fancies. Of the whole circle, Jefferson was the only one who, in
a certain irony of destiny, had been promoted to be the chief of a
state. He was too steadfast to abandon then the theories which, in a
position less distinguished, he had proclaimed. To these fancies the
country owed more than one of the absurdities which nearly para
lyzed its energies during the years of his administration. And when
he left the seat of the President he had to be satisfied with the poor
reflection that, as a friend of peace, he had not made war himself,
although he had done everything in the power of one man to drive
the country into war under his successor.
In his inaugural address, with a comprehensive courage which
gratified all parties, he accepted as his own the policy of the Fed
eralists ; and, from that moment, for a generation, nothing was re
ally heard from his followers of the demands for State rights, which
had been discussed for the last fifteen years, and theoretically main
tained by the Democratic party. For, so soon as it held Thcpolicy
office, following his lead, that party assumed habits of na- ofhtaPair1y-
tional administration, such as no Federal leader even had ever dared
to propose. For the next generation, the armory from which States
or men in opposition should draw their sharpest weapons would be
the resolutions of State rights framed by Jefferson and his compan
ions in the bitter controversies with Adams. Majorities were to
govern now that the Democrats were in the majority. " All IIis inaugu.
will bear in mind," he said, " this sacred principle, that ral-
though the will of the majority is in all cases to prevail, that will, to
be rightful, must be reasonable ; that the minority possess their equal
rights, which equal laws must protect, and to violate would be op
pression." Again he said : " We have called by different names
brethren of the same principle. We are all Republicans : we are all
Federalists." . ..." I know, indeed, that some honest men fear
that a republican government cannot be strong, that this government
is not strong enough I believe this, on the contrary, the
strongest government on earth Let us, then, with courage
and confidence, pursue our own Federal and Republican principles."
In another part of the address he enumerates these principles.
" Equal and exact justice to all men, of whatever state or persuasion,
religious or political ; peace, commerce, and honest friendship with
all nations, entangling alliances with none ; the support of the State
governments in all their rights, as the most competent administra
tions for our domestic concerns, and the surest bulwarks against anti-
166 JEFFERSON. [€HAP. VII.
republican tendencies ; the preservation of the general government
in its whole constitutional vigor, as the sheet-anchor of our peace at
home and safety abroad ; a jealous care of the right of election by
the people, a mild and safe corrective of abuses which are lopped by
the sword of revolution where peaceable, remedies are unprovided;
absolute acquiescence in the decisions of the majority, the vital prin
ciple of republics, from which is no appeal but to force, the vital prin
ciple and immediate parent of despotism ; a well-disciplined militia,
our best reliance in peace, and for the first moments of war, till reg
ulars may relieve them ; the supremacy of the civil over the military
authority ; economy in the public expense, that labor may be lightly
burdened ; the honest payment of our debts, and sacred preservation
of the public faith ; encouragement of agriculture, and of commerce
as its handmaid ; the diffusion of information, and arraignment of
all abuses at the bar of the public reason ; freedom of religion ; free
dom of the press ; and freedom of the person, under the protection of
the habeas corpus ; and trial by juries impartially selected."
As Jefferson and his friends interpreted these principles, they meant
a strong central government. As the nation grew in wealth and
power, that government grew in patronage and consideration. With
every year the laurels and the prizes which any State government
could offer to ambitious or to selfish men, became of less importance,
in comparison with those the general government had in hand. Year
by year the extreme doctrines of State rights, as proclaimed in 1798,
were confined more and more to the eloquence of debating societies
and public dinners. In practice, the Republican or Democratic party
became the national party. Confident of popular support, the Presi
dent and his followers were able to carry forward such measures as
they thought the national interests required ; and, for the first twelve
years of the century, even while local irritations were strong enough
to keep up very bitter partisan animosities, they fortunately never
offered any hindrance to the maintenance of a definite national policy
abroad, — had the President ever determined on such a policy, —
nor any check on the development of healthy national sentiment at
home.
In Jefferson's first years, a Federal majority in the Senate to a cer
tain extent restrained the full adoption of such measures as a con
sistent fulfilment of the promises of the canvass would require. The
checks of the constitutional system often give such fortunate delay in
the work of eager partisans, affording a relief, which a seaman would
call lee-way, giving the ship of state sufficient time to change her
course. But success had its accustomed fruits. State after State
turned out its Federal rulers, and took part with the Republicans.
1801.]
THE REPUBLICAN PARTY.
Side by side with the legitimate political discussions of the people,
ecclesiastical discussions of the first interest were going forward, in
which the older order of church establishments were giving way to
the more popular adjustment of what we now call the " voluntary
system." In New England, the clergy — who in Massachusetts and
Connecticut were settled for life, and, in a fashion, took on them
selves some of the offices of an aristocracy, — were threatened by the
change which has long since left the appointment and maintenance of
the ministry to the order of the congregations. A very large major-
Monticello — the Home of Jefferson.
ity of the ministers, as of the lawyers of New England, had allied
themselves to the Federal party ; in truth, the ministers and lawyers
had led it. The opposers of the system which maintained them, — a
system clearly in opposition to the general drift of democratic institu
tions, — naturally allied themselves to the Republican party. In the
newer regions of the country, at the same time, the most enthusiastic
followers of the eager preachers of religious revivals were found in
like alliance with the Republican party. Chilled by the suspicion or
antagonism of the more decorous established clergy, they readily op
posed any political scheme which that clergy was supposed to uphold.
In one part of the country, therefore, Jefferson's friends had the as
sistance of the increasing body of what were called " Free-thinkers ; "
in another part, the ready support of religious enthusiasts. On the
other hand, the former leaders of the Federalists were left with no
168
JEFFERSON.
[CHAP. VII.
spell to conjure with. They could only appeal to the cultivated and
thoughtful men with whom politics was a science, not an amusement
or a game, — men who knew that in the long run government would
succeed or would perish as it adhered to or abandoned certain great
fundamental principles. Jefferson permitted himself to be governed
by these principles when it suited his purpose, and, when it did not,
was quite ready to set them at defiance to defeat his opponents on
detailed questions of administration, which were often settled before
the discussion of them could well be brought before the popular tri
bunals. Communication was difficult between different parts of the
country ; the seat of government itself was an outpost in a wilder
ness ; and the diffusion of popular information by a vigilant press was
in its infancy, — as we speak of it to-day, it was wholly unknown.
The rapid increase of the settlements west of the Alleghanies had
Settlement already shown itself in the results of the census of 1800.
oftheue.st. That part of the Northwest Territory which we now know
as Ohio, was admitted into the Union as a State soon after Jeffer
son's accession to
office. Its people
adopted a Constitu
tion by a convention
which met at Chilli-
cothe in November,
1802. In admitting
the new State, Con
gress adopted some
principles which
have become prec
edents of the very
first importance.
In a wise determi
nation to encourage
settlement, the new
State Constitution
provided, by an or
dinance which could
not be repealed,
that for four years after any settler purchased land of the United
States, no local taxes should be laid upon it. Congress met this lib-
Lands given erality of the new-born State by a gift more than princely
in its munificence, which has been made a precedent in all
subsequent legislation. The law granted to the State one township
in each section of the survey for the establishment of its schools.
Courthouse at Chillicothe, O., 1801. — From an old picture.
1807.]
THE FIRST STEAMBOAT.
169
That is to say, one thirty-sixth part of the public domain has been
consecrated since that time to the purposes of public education. A
grant so munificent, under a policy so large, has given to what are
still called the "new States " in America, opportunities for a system of
public education unequalled in the world. In some instances, where
statesmen of prudence have been able to administer this fund from
the beginning, such a system of public education has been attained.
With the acquisition of Louisiana and the consequent free right of
navigating the Mississippi, the States in the valley of that river at
tained every advantage which the boldest of their leaders dared to
ask. The increase of emigration into territories of such match
less fertility and luxuriant beauty was proportionate. Not one of
those leaders, how
ever, dared to fore
cast the great in
vention of the
steamboat, which
was necessary to
give to their terri
tory its full value.
The experiments of
John Fitch in driv
ing barges by steam
had been tried on
the Delaware,
w h e r e there was
really no local trade
sufficient to give much interest to his enterprise. In an early vol
ume of the " American Philosophical Transactions," Mr. Latrobe,
the engineer of most reputation in the country, expresses his regret
that American inventors waste so much time in futile ef
forts to drive boats by steam, instead of turning their at
tention to the improvement of the steam-engine for its work on land.
As early as 1804, the year after the United States had acquired Lou
isiana, the American Kobert Fulton^ was urging upon Napoleon, in
Paris, his own plans for the steamboat. But the experimental vessel
was too slightly built ; the boiler and engine, too heavy for it, broke
through and sank to the bottom of the Seine, and the discouraged
inventor was dismissed in disgrace. The first successful experiment
was to be made in this country. In the summer of 1807, a boat called
the Clermont made the trip from New York to Albany in thirty-two
hours, and back again in thirty. This was at the rate of about five
miles an hour ; and, although the experiment was ridiculed as im-
Fulton's First Steamboat.
Steamboats.
170 JEFFERSON. [CHAP. VII.
practicable before it was made, and useless afterwards, it was, never
theless, so conclusive from the start, that the speed attained on the
first trip was nearly half as great as that at which many ferry-boats
are run in the harbor of New York, more than seventy years later.
"• The morning I left New York," wrote Fulton, " there were not,
perhaps, thirty persons in the city who believed the boat would ever
move one mile an hour." It was not until 1812 that a steamboat
navigated the waters of the Ohio.1
Long before this time, however, Jefferson, in the spirit of scientific
Lewis and research, which gives dignity to every period of his life,
had commissioned two officers of the army — Meriwether
Lewis and William Clarke — to explore the waters of the Missouri
River, cross the mountain range, and descend to the Pacific. This
commission they successfully fulfilled in 1804 and the two following
years. With a large party, they embarked on a considerable llo-
tilla of boats, and stemmed the rapid current of the Missouri for
twenty-six hundred miles. Leaving their flotilla there with a garri
son, they crossed the mountains with the remainder of the party,
mounted on horses which they had captured, and were thus the
discoverers of the two streams still known as the Lewis and Clarke
Rivers. They followed these rivers to their junction in Columbia
River, which they then traced to the sea. This great river had
already been discovered by Robert Gray, of Salem. Massachusetts,
commander of the ship Columbia Rediviva, in May, 171*2. On these
two discoveries — first of the mouth of the river, and then of its
course — rested, in part, the claim of the United States for its terri
tories west of the Rocky Moun tains.2 In this journey, the party of
explorers met many Indian tribes who had never before seen white
men, — some who, it was supposed, had never heard of white men.
It was the first journey ever made to the Pacific by the whites, north
of the line of Mexico.3
The rapid development of the Western country was really the
feature of most importance in the history of the nation in
inent of the the first decade of the century. But the great law held,
under which men do not at the moment fully estimate the
force of the deeper currents on which they are borne. Some of the
1 This vessel was the Orleans, built by Fulton and Livingston, at Pittsburg. She had a
stern-wheel and masts, and this seems to have been the first successful experiment with the
stern-wheel.
2 It eventually acquired by the Treaty of Florida all the claims of Spain to that region.
8 The first, through northern Mexico, was that of Cabeea de Vaca, already described,
vol. i., p. 15G. By absurd errors, the biographical dictionaries often say that the same jour
ney was accomplished by Carver in 1767, and by Chateaubriand in 1791. These errors
are due to the ignorance of writers in Europe on points of American geography.
1805.]
FOREIGN COMMERCE.
171
most thoughtful men in the country deprecated the Western emigra
tion. They thought it would reduce the Atlantic States to insignifi
cance, and endanger the permanence of the Union.
In the immense development of the physical wealth of the nation,
the large increase of its foreign commerce attracted atten- Foroign
tion more general. The rapid increase of exports, which commen
has been alluded to, was due not only to the increase of domestic
Gate of the Mountains, on the Upper Missouri.
productions, but to the commercial necessities of the world, while the
European wars lasted. Allusion has already been made to the great
carrying trade which the European war almost forced upon the
fortunate American merchants. For such an article as sugar, for in
stance, such countries as Holland, Italy, and France were largely
dependent on importations in American vessels. To a considerable
extent, the course of trade brought sugar from the West Indies to
ports in the United States, — in accordance with the rule enforced
by England, in regard to neutrals, — whence it was shipped again to
172 JEFFERSON. [CHAP. VII.
Europe. Of this single article, not then produced largely in Louisi
ana,1 the export from the United States in the three years 1805, 1806,
1807, exceeded four hundred million pounds. The export of coffee
from the United States was only less valuable, — the amount being
one hundred and thirty million pounds. Although drawbacks were
allowed at the custom-houses on the principal foreign articles thus
exported, on foreign imports reexported which had no drawbacks the
treasury received four million dollars in those years. This single
item of revenue, wholly paid by foreign consumers, was nearly equal
to one quarter of all the expenditures of the national administration
in the same time.
It would also happen in the course of trade, that an American ves
sel in a foreign port would find a profitable voyage to some other
port, without returning home. Freedom from danger of capture was,
of course, an immense premium in favor of the charter of such ves
sels. Once in the foreign trade, — or the "carrying trade," as it
came to be called, — an American vessel might not return to the
United States for many years. From a stimulus so remarkable, ship
building and maritime commerce increased in a ratio larger than that
of the population, while the national prosperity was in every way
quickened by such enlargement of the means for obtaining wealth.
The earliest statistics are of the years when the Constitution went
into operation, and even then the maritime activity of the new na
tion was considerable. From that time, in seventeen years ending
with 1810, the increase of tonnage owned by citizens of the United
States was nearly threefold. The amount increased from four hun
dred and eighty-nine thousand tons to one million three hundred
and ninety thousand. It will be observed that while the population
of the country doubled in twenty-two years, the tonnage, the best
index of its maritime success, was almost trebled in seventeen. It
was observed with pride that, in commercial rivalry with Great
Britain, the new nation already almost equalled the old in her ship
ping on the seas.2
It was a matter of course that a trade so lucrative, which fell into
the hands of the American merchants merely from the folly that
/kept the European sovereigns and states in constant war, should be
'looked on with jealousy by all nations. The great law insisted on
1 In 1810, the production of Louisiana was about ten million pounds. The production
of maple sugar in the Northern States was nine and a half million pounds
2 In 1807, the tonnage of American vessels engaged in foreign trade, which entered the
ports of the United States, was one million one hundred thousand tons. That of Great -
Britain, which entered her ports, was one million five hundred thousand tons. In each
case the repeated voyages were counted. But no estimate appeared of the large American
commerce which did not return in the year to American ports.
1805.] COMMERCE AND ITS DIFFICULTIES. 173
by Catherine and the other neutral powers in the war of the Revolu
tion, that neutral ships should make neutral goods, was hardly yet
accepted as a part of the international code of the world. Even had
it been accepted, its interpretation in practice was not left to jurists,
but to the commanders of cruisers eager to make prizes, and often
indifferent to the questions of national or personal privilege involved
in the particular case in hand. In many instances, indeed, the seiz
ure of a merchantman, followed by a reference to a prize court of the
questions regarding her voyage, was in itself an injury hardly less
than her confiscation. Her cargo might be perishable, or its value
might depend on the rapidity of her voyage.
For such reasons, and a hundred others, it happened, with every
day of this lucrative commerce of the Americans, that some
indignity was committed by some commander of a blockad- of thu carry
ing cruiser, which was fairly accounted an insult to the flag
of the new nation, and involved serious loss to those engaged in the
carrving trade. In such indignities and insults, as well as in the en
forcement of real blockades, every belligerent nation that had a gun
afloat participated. But of course it happened that England was the
greatest offender, because her navy was the largest; and eventually, as
the victories of Nelson and others of her admirals captured or swept
out of existence the war-ships of other nations, she became indeed
the monarch of the seas. In her relations with the United States,
there were also other causes of antagonism. The older officers and
seamen remembered the time, not distant, when the two nations were
at war. The very trade which was so lucrative to America was trade
that had been carried on by English ships in days of peace. A mat
ter that proved very difficult of adjustment, and a constant cause
of ill-feeling, was the identity of the language, not to say the habits,
of the sailors of the two nations. In the impressment of seamen,
already alluded to, officers who were seeking deserters from the King's
service felt at liberty to overhaul American vessels, and look for such
deserters there. The indignity of a search was, of course, in itself,
exasperating to a proud people. And when, as sometimes happened,
seamen who declared they were born in America, were taken from
American vessels, the outrage touched the national heart most sen
sitively.1
1 So indiscriminate were English officers in these outrages, that it sometimes happened
that black men were seized as English seamen. At that time, the public opinion of the
world was such that few statesmen troubled themselves much about the rights of negroes.
But, in another generation, when it proved convenient in the United States to argue that
free negroes had never been citizens, it was remembered that the cabinets of Jefferson 'and
Madison, in their diplomatic discussions with Great Britain, had been willing to argue that
the impressment of a free negro was the seizure of an American citizen.
174 JEFFERSON. [CHAP. VII.
Difficult of settlement as these various questions were, the fact
should not be lost sight of that their discussion was governed by
recognized principles of international law at that time, and the tre
mendous strain to which England was subjected by her wars with
Napoleon and his rapid progress in the subjugation of all Europe.
The natural right of the subject to change his national allegiance
was not then acknowledged, and once an Englishman always an
Englishman, was held to be a legal axiom. That England, how
ever, was not disposed to push this to extremity, cannot be doubted
in the light of the diplomatic correspondence of the time. She was
not only willing, but anxious, that the question of the assumed right
of impressment, and the assumption of sovereignty over her citizens
who had repudiated their allegiance, should be reconciled, if possible,
to the American demand of the inviolability of the American flag.
In 1806, Monroe and William Pinkney concluded a treaty with Great
Britain which, had it been ratified, would have essentially changed
the relations of the two powers, and would, perhaps, have prevented
a recourse to war and the calamitous measures which preceded it.
In transmitting the treaty to the President, the ministers wrote on
the subject of impressment : " That, although this Government did
not feel itself at liberty to relinquish, formally, by treaty, its claim to
search our merchant vessels for British seamen, its practice would,
nevertheless, be essentially if not completely abandoned. That opin
ion has been since confirmed by frequent conferences on the subject
with the British commissioners, who have repeatedly assured us that,
in their judgment, we were made as sure against the exercise of their
pretension by the policy which their Government had adopted in re
gard to that very delicate and important question, as we could have
been made by treaty." But a treaty with England would have
placed America in an inimical, if not hostile, attitude toward France,
and it was Jefferson's policy, so far as he had any, that this should
not be done. He quietly, therefore, put the treaty into a pigeon-hole
and said nothing about it to the United States Senate.
All these restrictions on American commerce, vexatious enough be
fore, culminated in the proclamations, which were so fruit-
Thc Orders „ , IT i i • i
in council, ful a source of controversy and disaster, known in history
iin and MI" as the " decrees of Berlin and Milan " and the " Orders in
Ian decrees. „ ., ,, T, ,. i A i -i i TVT i
Council. By the Berlin and Milan decrees, Napoleon, in
the pride of his power, declared the English islands to be in a state
of blockade, and claimed the right to seize all vessels trading with
England or her dependencies.1 To the Berlin Decree the English
1 The date of the Berlin Decree is November 20, 1806 ; that of the Milan Decree, Decem
ber 17, 1807. The Orders in Council were dated November 11, 1807.
1807.] THE NAVY. 175
Government replied by the King's " Orders in Council,1' prohibiting
all commerce with those ports of the Continent of Europe which
were under the dominion of France or her allies. This meant, in
substance, all Europe except Russia. By these decrees, American
merchant ships were subject to seizure wherever they might be. If
a navnl commander of England suspected that a merchantman which
he overhauled was on her way to a European port, he captured the
vessel and sent her into an English port for trial. Or, if a French
cruiser overhauled a merchantman, and suspected she was going to an
English harbor, he arrested the vovage and sent her to France.
O *J o
Against these paper blockades the United States, now the chief neu
tral power, protested, as Russia and the neutral states had success
fully protested in the war of independence. In its diplomacy, the
United States maintained the position which is now accepted as fun
damental in the public law of the world, that the blockade of a port
must be maintained by a competent force upon the spot.
Unfortunately, tire United States was in no position to give dig
nity to its diplomacy by a naval force of its own. The ad- condition of
ministration of Adams had made the beginning of a navy, thenavy-
and the Navy Department was separated from the Department of
War as early as 1798. But one of the charges of extravagance made
against the Federalists was connected with their building a few frig
ates, and preparing to build a few more. So soon as Jefferson's ad
ministration came in, the timber in the dock-yards was sold, with a
certain affectation of economy. Thus it happened, that at a time when
a proud government would have been glad to convoy its fleets of
merchantmen with a protection competent against insolent cruisers,
the Government of the United States, though the proudest of all, had
almost no vessels of war for such a purpose. This Government was
obliged, therefore, to see the carrying trade, which was really so prof
itable to all parties, bullied almost out of existence, and could onlv
make its protests in well-argued and bitter despatches.
Jefferson had more than parsimonious reasons for avoiding the
building of a fleet. One of the theories on which he most valued
himself involved the idea that Avar was unnecessary. He supposed,
and he taught, that nations could be conquered by letting them alone.
Like other patriots who remembered the beginning of the Revolution,
he supposed, falsely in fact, that the non-intercourse acts of the colo
nies had largely affected public opinion in England. All Americans
thought too largely of the place of their country in the councils of the
world. The Virginians had more of this conceit than other Ameri
cans ; and, of all Virginians, whether as an individual or as an
American, Jefferson was the most conceited. His philanthropy, his
176
JEFFERSON.
[CHAP. VII.
American pride, and this profound self-conceit, all united in direct
ing a series of measures by which he hoped to gain the advantages of
The gun- war without its disasters. In place of a navy fit to go to sea,
boat system. ]ie proposed, and Congress adopted, that system of gunboats
for harbor defence already mentioned. Each vessel was to carry one
heavy gun. Two hundred and fifty were to be built in ten years.
They were to be kept under sheds in time of peace, and in war to be
manned by the seamen or militia of the town attacked. No fortifica
tions were to be required for harbors, which were to be protected by
Taking Deserters from the Chesapeake.
cannon on wheels, kept in readiness to be dragged from place to place
when needed.
At the moment when the annoyances to merchants readied their
height from the proclamation of the Berlin Decree, the in-
The affair of n r
the chesa- suits offered by English naval officers to the American marine
culminated. Berkeley, the English Admiral on the North
American station, issued an order to his captains (June 1, 1807), re-
1807.] AFFAIR OF THE CHESAPEAKE. 177
quiring them, in case they met the United States frigate Chesapeake
at sea, to search her for some deserters from the English navy who
were on board. The men's names were given, and it was said to be
matter of notoriety that they were on board the Chesapeake. As the
result of this order, when the Chesapeake, after six months of prepara
tion, went to sea from Norfolk, Virginia, whence she was ordered to
the Mediterranean, the English ship Leopard accompanied her from
that port. As soon as both vessels were well at sea, the captain of
the Leopard hailed the Chesapeake, asking leave to send despatches
on board. James Barren, commander of the Chesapeake, not having
the slightest suspicion of violence, received the boat. It brought to
him Admiral Berkeley's letter and a demand for the deserters, which
demand, after half an hour's reflection, he refused. So soon as his
note was received on the Leopard, her commander hailed; and, say
ing that Admiral Berkeley's orders must be complied with, fired sev
eral broadsides into the Chesapeake. Such was the encumbered con
dition of the American vessel, which had gone to sea without any
expectation of war, that her officers were not able to fire a gun. No
match could be found, even, when guns were loaded. At last Barron
struck his flag, — at which moment one gun on the American ship
was fired by a hot coal from the galley. Several English officers then
boarded the ship, mustered her crew, and carried off four deserters.
That they were deserters, there was no doubt ; but they said they
had been impressed from American ships. Three of them were black
men, whose nation was the United States. Two of them were born
in Maryland, and one had been brought up in Massachusetts, though
born in South America.
An outrage like this, inflicted not by accident or the brutality of a
separate commander, naturally excited the whole nation to the utmost.
Jefferson interdicted American harbors and waters to all vessels of the
English navy, and forbade intercourse with them. He sent a vessel
of war with a special minister to London to demand satisfaction. On
the other hand, the English Admiral hanged the deserter and dis
missed the three black men with a reprimand, blaming them for dis
turbing the peace of two nations. So soon as his account of the affair
reached England, George Canning, as foreign secretary, disallowed it,
and offered reparation, recalling Berkeley from his command. But at
the same time a royal proclamation was issued, directing commanders
to make a " demand " for all English seamen serving on foreign ships
of war, and, in case of refusal, to report such refusal. That the out
rage did not end in immediate war, was due partly to Canning's con
cessions, and partly to the fact that the Americans had no navy to
fight with. After the attack on the Chesapeake, the English fleet
VOL. IV. 12
178
JEFFERSON.
[CHAP. VII.
anchored outside the capes of James River, brought to every vessel
by firing, and even threatened to cut out the French frigate Sybil,
which lay in Norfolk harbor. The whole transaction was one of the
incidents most efficient in producing the situation that led to war.
In the midst of such irritation Congress met in the autumn of
The 1807. The Milan Decree had not yet arrived in America ;
embargo. j^ &Q soon as the Orders in Council were made certain, the
President sent to Congress a message pointing out the results of the
Berlin Decree, and other papers that showed the "dangers with
which our vessels, our seamen, and our merchandise are threatened
on the high seas and elsewhere from the belligerent powers of Eu
rope." Jefferson asked Congress for an " inhibition of the departure
of our vessels from the ports
of the United States," on
the ground that it was de
sirable to keep in safety
our maritime resources.
Congress immediately
passed the act proposed,
after short debate in secret
session, by a strong party
vote, — nearly two to one
in the House of Represen
tatives. It prohibited the
departure from American
ports of all American ves
sels, and of all foreign ves
sels except those in ballast.
No merchandise whatever
was to be exported. The
act, therefore, was not, in
fact, merely a law for sav
ing American ships from
danger, as the message suggested ; it was a measure of aggression
against England. It was a measure unpopular, of course, in pro
portion as men wrere or were not engaged in commerce. The men
of New England and New York, whose ships and seamen were ex
posed, did not thank the philanthropy that kept them in port. But
the planters and farmers of the South and West were pleased with
the thought that they were making war against England without
firing a gun or taxing themselves a dollar. The maritime States
thought the agricultural States took a spec.ial satisfaction in a quasi
war, of which all the burden fell at first upon commerce.
James Madison.
1808.] THE EMBARGO. 179
But it proved, of course, as a wiser political economy knows, that
the burden at length became universal. True, the foreign
, 7, . vc . i i Its effect.
powers, at whom this pacific war was aimed, were hardly
aware of its pressure. It furnished one of the stimulants much
needed for the manufacture of beet sugar in France ; l England cared
little for the loss of American products, which she could easily
supply from other places ; and in the immense convulsions of Eu
ropean politics, it commanded little notice. At home the men whose
tobacco and cotton and corn could not be sent to market, soon
learned that they also, as well as the carriers of those products, were
paying a heavy tax by this interdiction of commerce. In the sea
board cities it was said, without a metaphor, that grass was growing
in the streets and on the piers. What followed at once, to Jefferson's
undying mortification, was rebellion from their allegiance to him of
his partisans in the maritime States, and the disloyalty of many of
those most relied upon in other quarters. A presidential election
came on at this crisis. .With the customary Virginian conceit, two
Virginians, Madison and Monroe, offered themselves as candidates.
To New York, Jefferson had owed his election, and George Clinton,
of New York, appeared as a Republican candidate against the Vir
ginians. Jefferson determined that Madison should succeed him.
The election showed, however, that the Democratic party was every
where losing the triumphant majority which had returned Jefferson
for a second time, and in his last message to Congress he wrote with
the knowledge that his favorite policy of war without fighting had
not been approved by the country. The message stated briefly the
failure abroad of that " candid and liberal experiment," to end the
embargo by a proposition to Great Britain and France that they
should first recall their orders and decrees against neutral com
merce, and left to the " wisdom of Congress " a decision as to its con
tinuance. Congress took the matter immediately in hand, and, in
entire subservience to the President, passed resolutions for enfor
cing the act, by majorities even stronger than those by which it was
passed.
This enforcing act proved the last straw on the patience of the
maritime States. The vehemence of the protest of their towns
showed itself in every form, not always pacific. The partisan ma
jority vote, which was as strong as eighty-four to thirty on the "Jtli of
1 An American epigram of the time is worth preserving.
"I've a substitute found," says Boney: " No more
Of your sugar will I taste the sweet."
" Very well," says John Bull, " while I hold the cane,
You 're welcome, indeed, to get beet."
180 MADISON. [CHAP. VII.
December, 1808, vanished under the pressure of public opinion, and
so sudden was the change that 011 the 2d of February the
embargo was repealed. The Administration tried to stem
the torrent so far as to fix the 1st of June as the day for reopening
commerce, but its followers followed no longer, and on the 3d of Feb
ruary the 1st of March was agreed upon. This curious and imme
diate change of opinion was ascribed by Jefferson to a kind of panic
among the New England and New York members. Joseph Story,
afterwards Judge Story, had come on as a new member of Congress,
and to his influence in the House Jefferson imputed the revolution.
Jefferson left office with the mortification of seeing his favorite scheme
of peaceful war abandoned, and with the additional mortification of
seeing Congress reject the policy and plan of Madison, whom he had
named as his successor.
In the accession of Madison, the country had the advantage of
President choosing a magistrate who, if not endowed with genius, had
Madison. g^]} £jie temperate or judicial habit which a great statesman
or legislator needs. The duties of the Executive, however, as many
nations have learned to their cost, are not simply those of a legislator
or of a constitution-maker. For an executive office, experience in
action seems necessary, and of this, Madison's careful training at the
bar and in diplomacy had given him little. There are, therefore, ele
ments of pathos almost dramatic in his life. In the first half of it
he was overshadowed by his great leader, Jefferson. After work of
the first ability in making the Constitution and securing its adoption,
he was forced for twenty years to work in public life as the subordi
nate of one who was absent in Europe when the Constitution was
made, and who was ahvays proud to say that he was not responsible
for its details. At last, Madisoif was emancipated from such control.
His master condescended to name him as his successor, and bade
his junior, Monroe, wait his turn.
But at this moment a new generation was stepping upon the
stage ; the counsels and plans of that older generation, to which
Madison belonged, wrere now to be pushed by as old-fashioned. And,
through his administration, Madison, who had served so patiently un
der his master of the generation that was gone, was obliged to serve
for eight years more under the young masters of the generation that
was io come. Decrees of destiny, less bitter, have been chosen sub
jects with tragic poets. For this is not the world's accustomed les
son, in which a weak man is moulded by circumstances. This is the
picture of a strong man, who seems fitted for better* things, but who
cannot avoid what the Greeks would have called his destiny.
The new President had been Secretary of State under the late ad-
1809.] MADISOX'S ACCESSION. 181
ministration. But he and his friends found themselves powerless to
direct the panic-stricken Congress, which went out of power at the
same time with Jefferson. The best that could be done was, to ac
company the repeal of the embargo by a provision which forbade
imports from Europe. This partial continuance of the non-inter
course system diminished, of course, the joy with which the maritime
towns received the news of their victory.
From this policy of non-intercourse, and from the other difficulties
which, in a state of war, hindered importations from Eu- Effect of thc
rope, was unexpectedly born that gigantic system under "oureepoi-
which the United States has become a great manufacturing icy-
nation. An interesting symbol of the new industry is observed in
the fact that the new President, at his inauguration, was dressed in a
suit of cloth of American manufacture, which had been presented by
Chancellor Livingston for this use. Early in May, Madison met his
new Congress. The Democratic majority in name was diminished;
but that deceptive good fortune, which had always seemed Beginning
to wait on him through life, did not yet fail him. Concilia- aamhitstra-'8
tory despatches came from Canning. The younger Erskine, tion-
a gentleman of honor and liberal views, came over as English Minister.
From a real and sensible hope for accommodation on both sides, such
arrangements were made that restrictions on English commerce were
removed. The maritime States were rejoiced. Again " men were all
Federalists, and all Republicans." A fleet of more than a thousand
merchantmen rushed across the ocean to take advantage of the con
ciliation. Everything seemed to become new.
But all parties reckoned without their host. So soon as this news
arrived in England, the Tory Ministry of the Duke of Portland re
jected Erskine's treaty. He had exceeded his authorit}% and Madi
son was accused of having persuaded him to do so in the hope that
the ministry would take the coarse they did. Mr. Jackson, known
as " Copenhagen Jackson," was sent out as Erskine's successor —
an appointment not agreeable in America, and probably not meant
to be. The Government finally refused to deal with him, and when
Congress met, at the close of 1809, it sustained the refusal. Madi~
son's friends now brought forward an American Navigation Act.
It excluded all French and English vessels from American harbors,
It placed its restrictions on the Europeans, and" not on the Ameri
cans. But to this bill the Senate could not be made to agree. The
President could^ not control his own party. Commerce was thus
finally left to take care of itself. Meanwhile the revenue from cus
toms was diminishing. Seventeen millions of surplus with which
the Administration had proudly gone into the embargo policy, was
182
MADISON.
[CHAP. VII.
The Presi
dent and
Little Belt.
absorbed. The English Government appointed no successor to Mr.
Jackson. Everything drifted, in the relations between America and
England, as might have been expected, when the Cabinet of one
country disavowed the acts of its own Minister, and the President
of the other could not direct the policy of Congress. That Congress
went out of service amid the general contempt which attaches to
bodies that have done nothing.
At about the same time it happened that the American frigate
President had a collision at sea with the English sloop-of-
war Little Belt. Following the presumptuous example of
the Leopard, the Little Belt had thrown a shot into the
President, which she answered by a series of broadsides that badly
crippled her assailant. There was also a little war-cloud on the fron
tier. The Indian chief Tecum-
seh and his brother " the Proph
et " had been for some time en
deavoring to induce the western
tribes to abstain from whiskey
and return to the customs and
weapons of their ancestors, —
with no better success than at
tended the similar efforts of
Pontiac, half a century before,
— when they found a grievance
in the treaty made in 1809 by
William Henry Harrison, Gov
ernor of the Indiana Territory,
with several of these tribes.
For presents to the value of
eight thousand dollars, and stip
ulated annuities, a tract on the
Wabash, above Terre Haute,
was ceded to the Government.
Tecumseh held that all the lands belonged to all the tribes, and none
could be sold without the consent of all. Harrison invited the war
rior and his brother to a friendly conference, which just escaped
ending in a massacre. Depredations on the frontier suggested the
propriety of a post on the upper waters of the Wabash, and in 1811
Harrison, with two thousand men, ascended that stream and estab
lished one at Terre Haute. An attempt to open friendly communi-
Battieof cations with the Prophet was repelled, and Harrison then
Tippecanoe. marcne(j against his town, encamping within ten miles of it,
on the Tippecanoe. Before daybreak, on the morning of November
William Henry Harrison.
1811.]
CLAY AND CALHOUX.
183
7, the savages burst upon his camp with a terrific whoop. The sol
diers put out their camp-fires, and stood their ground manfully in
the darkness, while the Indians tried in vain to break the square in
which they were formed. At sunrise the mounted men made a
gallant charge, and the enemy withdrew, carrying off their wounded.
The next day, Harrison found the Prophet's town deserted, and
burned it.
Everything in the foreign relations tended to irritation ; and the
elections of 1811 showed the determination of the country to adopt a
national policy, if anybody were wise enough to say what that policy
should be. The President, in his message, proposed an " armor and
attitude corresponding with the national spirit." If this had meant
preparations for defence, — the assertion of the right to trade any-
Battle-field of Tippecanoe.
where, of any American to go where he pleased with arms in his
hands to protect himself and his commerce, — the country to a man
would have rallied at his call. But already, with the first two years
of his administration, the control of affairs had passed from his
hands. A party had come into power who meant to have war, but
\vitli England only. It was, moreover, a Southern, sectional party,
ambitious of power, and believing that the surest way to attain to
it was to " stand by their order " as slaveholders, against the intel
ligence and the free labor of the North. The leaders of this party
who have since been best remembered, were Henry Clay, of Ken-
184
MADISOX.
[CHAP. VII.
Clay and
Calhouu.
tucky, and John Caldwell Calhoun, of South Carolina. These two
men, afterward such bitter rivals, stood together in the out
set as the most eager advocates of war. By an error, which
they long regretted, these young Hotspurs, as they have since been
called, and the men who followed them, distrusted the power at sea
of the young nation. Vainly did the New England speakers plead
for a fleet, if it were only of thirty frigates. The West and the
South would not trust New England, even when she offered to fight
for them. Their plans were made for invading Canada, by the en
largement of the regular army and the help of the militia. A new
embargo was ordered. New regiments were added to the army. The
President was authorized to call out a hundred thousand militia, to
Preparation invade Canada for the protection of sailors' rights and free
trade at sea. Still Madison wavered. He still hoped for
peace. But a committee, headed by Clay, waited upon him, and
told him that if he did not declare for war, he should not be re-nom
inated as the candidate for the Presidency.1 Both Monroe and Clin
ton were quite willing to accept the nomination as war candidates.
The threat was sufficient ; the President yielded, and war against
England was declared on the 18th of June, 1812.
1 It was denied that any such bargain was made, but there can be no doubt that such
was the understanding enforced by Clay's committee.
The Tomb of Washington.
Detroit in 1815.
CHAPTER VIII.
WAR WITH ENGLAND.
MESSAGE AND REPORT ON WAR WITH ENGLAND. — DIVISION OF PARTIES ON THE WAR.
— RIOT IN BALTIMORE. — HULL'S SURRENDER OF THE NORTHWEST. — FIRST CAM
PAIGN ON THE NIAGARA, — NAVAL BATTLES OF THE FIRST YEAR. — WAR ON THE
LAKES. — DESTRUCTION OF YORK. — PERRY'S VICTORY. — HARRISON'S INVASION OF
CANADA. — TERRITORY OF MICHIGAN RECOVERED. — WILKINSON'S DISASTERS ON
THE ST. LAWRENCE. — SECOND CAMPAIGN ON THE NIAGARA. — INDIAN WAR IN
THE SOUTH, JACKSON'S CAMPAIGN. — NAVAL BATTLES OF THE SECOND YEAR.
THE confidential message of President Madison on the 1st of June,
and the report thereon of the House Committee on Foreign The deciara-
Relations, through its chairman, Mr. Calhoun, set forth at tlon of war-
length the reasons for a declaration of war against England, with great
force and distinctness. The modern reader of those documents, how
ever, will look in vain in either of them for any evidence of unself
ish patriotism, or of the grasp of the statesman ; but he will be
amazed at the boldness of the political partisan. There had been
reasons enough, for more than fifteen years, for going to war with
more than one nation, provided war was the only way in which the
United States could protect her rights and her interests. In the
mighty struggle of the great powers of Europe, the little power in
America had been in danger of being crushed out of existence. It
186 WAR WITH EXGLAND. [CHAP. VIII.
was certainly true that the upper and the nether millstones of that
terrible mill ground hard, but it was no less true that they ground
alike ; and the victim of their weight had persisted in the most fatu
ous way in remaining under their pressure, and, while groaning at
its cruelt}% had declared with obstinate persistence that it was only
the upper stone that hurt. Whatever justification there was for war,
applied equally to France and to England ; whether the party trained
by Jefferson — who so loved the doctrines and the action of the
French Revolutionists — meant or did not mean to aid France at
first, and then Napoleon, every step they took was in favor of France ;
but whether war was justifiable for any reason, with any power, it
was plainly evident that Jefferson's naval policy — of gunboats under
sheds, and a system of movable fortification by cannon on wheels —
had put the nation in a condition as unfit for war as if the discipline
and doctrine of the Society of Friends had been adopted as an amend
ment to the Constitution.
The decree, however, had gone forth, and the war of a faction,
which was the price of Madison's nomination for reelection, was to
be declared. Mr. Madison in his message and Mr. Calhoun in his
report, when both papers were stripped of specious argument, really
presented the determination of a war with England as a party meas
ure. The President acknowledged that the very outrages which
called for that war " have been practised on our vessels and our citi
zens," and that quite recently, by France; but he added, " I abstain,
at this time, from recommending to the consideration of Congress
defensive measures with respect to that nation,*' because there might
be further negotiation : implying that the possibility of negotiation
with England was closed ; though if it were, it had only become so by
Jefferson's contemptuous rejection of the Monroe-Pinckney treaty.
And Mr. Calhoun in his report, with equal obliviousness to the force
of his acknowledgment, said " The committee do not hesitate to
declare that France has equally injured the United States, and that
satisfactory reparation has not been made for many of these injuries.
But that is a concern which the United States will look to and settle
for themselves : " — by which he meant, if he meant anything, that
the United States would not be dictated to by Great Britain as to
her policy toward France ; forgetting, or not choosing to remember,
that in their policy towards Great Britain they had submitted to the
dictation of France.
Congress sat with closed doors to consider the confidential message.
opposition ^u^ even the Democrats were not of one mind. There were
peace-democrats then, as in later years and more perilous
times there were " war-democrats." In a full house the Democratic
1812.] OPPOSITIOX TO THE WAR. 187
majority was seventy ; the bill for the declaration of war was carried
by a majority of thirty only. In the Senate the vote was seventeen to
thirteen, six Democrats voting with the minority to the end, and even
then, Senator Bayard said, it would not have been carried but for a
difference of opinion in the Senate on other proposed measures. A
protest against the war, in the form of an address to their constituents,
was drawn up by Josiah Quincy, of Massachusetts, and signed by
thirty-eight members of the House. They complained of the tyranny
of the majority in passing in secret session a bill of so much import
ance, without permitting it to be debated ; they denounced the war
as a pretext to give aid to Napoleon against England ; they showed
how unprepared the nation was, without either army or navy, to begin
a contest with the strongest nation in the world ; and they warned
their countrymen of the madness of that party policy which disre
garded the danger of the dissolution of the Union, when the gov
ernment was still "in no small degree experimental, composed of
powerful and independent sovereignties associated in relations, some
of which are critical as well as novel."
Intense opposition to the war, which showed itself in mass-meetings,
in pulpits, in newspapers, and in pamphlets, was met, on the other
hand, by support not less earnest. The first blood was drawn, not in
military movements, but in domestic violence, and, as in a later and
greater war, in the streets of Baltimore. In the night of RiotjnBai-
June 22d a mob sacked the office of the " Federal Repub- timore-
lican," edited by Alexander Hanson, and extended the outrage to
dwellings of Federalists and vessels in the harbor. A month later
the paper was reissued, and Hanson, aided by numerous friends, was
prepared to defend his property. Again the office was attacked, but
the defenders fired upon the mob, killing one and wounding others.
The militia, tardily called out, arrested, not the rioters, but Hanson
and his party, and lodged them in jail, whei*e they were again at
tacked by the mob, who killed General Lingan in the most cruel and
cowardly manner, lamed General Henry Lee for life, and assaulted
others. The ringleaders were tried and acquitted.
The regular army numbered six thousand men, but the enlistment
of twenty-five thousand had been authorized, and now by an
other act the President was empowered to accept fifty thou
sand volunteers and call out a hundred thousand militiamen. Henry
Dearborn, of Massachusetts, was appointed to the chief, command.
General William Hull, the Governor of Michigan, was appointed
commander in the west, and was ordered to be in readiness The opening
to invade Canada in the event of war. He seems to have movement-
understood clearly enough the preparations and resources needed to
188 WAR WITH ENGLAND. [CHAP. VIII.
give to such a project any promise of success ; but, unfortunately for
himself, accepted his appointment without waiting for the assurance
of the Government that bis counsel should be heeded and his necessi
ties provided for. He marched from Ohio with about two thousand
men, chiefly militia, more uncontrollable and insubordinate, even,
than troops of that class usually are. When the declaration of war
reached him he crossed the Detroit River, a few miles below Detroit,
with the avowed purpose of taking Fort Maiden, and issued a procla
mation assuring the inhabitants of protection, but declaring that no
quarter would be given to those who should be found fighting in
company with the Indians. Had the Government taken the precau
tion to advise him of the declaration of war a few days earlier, and
before the news of it could have reached Canada, Hull's first step
might have had a different issue. But for the want of such advices
the first step was the enemy's, not his ; the fort at Michilimackinac
was taken by surprise and compelled to surrender, and that first suc
cess decided the hesitating Indian tribes to join their large force to
that side which promised to be the stronger. It was the fear of these
savages that a few days later so influenced Hull and brought about
the disastrous opening of the war.
A detachment sent out under Major Thomas B. Van Home to
guard a supply train was defeated by an overwhelming
force of English and Indians at Brownstown. But another,
under Lieutenant-colonel James Miller, sent to open communication
with the base of supplies at Raisin River, found an ambuscade at
Maguaga, and after a gallant fight of two hours routed the enemy,
who took to their boats. Nearly a hundred Indians lay dead on the
field, and the English lost about fifty men.
Captain Nathan Heald, in command of Fort Dearborn, where
Battle of Chicago now stands, was ordered by Hull to abandon it and
join him at Detroit. Heald promised the friendly Indians
the property in the fort which he could not take away ; but in the
night he destroyed the fire-arms, gunpowder, and liquor, the arti
cles they most wanted. On the morning of August loth he set out,
with fifty soldiers, accompanied by several families. As they moved
down the shore of the lake they were suddenly attacked by a large
band of Indians posted on a low range of sand-hills at a point now
within the city limits. A battle ensued, in which the women fought
as bravely as the men. After heavy losses, including a wagon-load of
twelve children, who were all tomahawked by one Indian, the sur
vivors surrendered, and of these all the wounded were scalped.1
On the 16th, General Isaac Brock crossed Detroit River with over
1 The British Colonel Proctor, at Maiden, had offered a premium for American scalps.
1812.]
HULL'S SURRENDER OF THE NORTHWEST.
189
two thousand regulars and Indians, and demanded the surrender of
that city, to which Hull had retreated. Hull, who had Surrenderof
about eight hundred and fifty men, half his force having Detroit-
been detached on distant expeditions, made admirable arrangements
for a stubborn defence ; but at the moment when the conflict was
expected to begin he hung out a white flag, and surrendered.
Brock, in demanding surrender, had declared he could not restrain
his allies, the Indians, from rapine and murder in case the place
should be carried by assault. Hull did not believe he could depend
upon the militia for any serious, much less for any desperate, fighting,
and he knew that the officers h:id en-
Battle of Chicago.
§P \ 'l^iJFl'^i^' '•'' tered into a conspiracy for his
•'^-^^^^IwwMK^1 deposition from command.
This mutual hick of confi
dence gave small promise of
successful defence, and, if unsuccessful, he dreaded the fate that
might await the women and children of the town, among whom
were a daughter of his own and her children. In this stern conflict
between the sense of soldierly duty and the feelings of a humane
man and a father, the soldier yielded. Whether right or wrong, the
act of the soldier could not be forgiven, and the popular clamor de
manded a victim for the loss, not only of Detroit, but of the whole
Northwest territory, and the failure to invade Canada. Hull was
tried by court-martial, and condemned to be shot. Though his crime
was compared, in the heated temper of the time, to Arnold's treason,
he was nevertheless pardoned by Madison, in consideration of his past
190 WAR WITH ENGLAND. [CHAP. VIII.
services.1 The President could hardly do less than grant his life to
a man left in so terrible a position by the neglect of the Government ;
their own fault was acknowledged in permitting the Secretary of War,
Eustis, to resign his office.
The second attempt to invade Canada, more disastrous than Hull's
surrender, — for more men were killed or wounded than
Queens- Hull had in his entire command, — was made on the Niag
ara frontier. General Stephen Van Rensselaer, in command
there, resolved to capture the heights of Queenstown, and on the
morning of October 13th sent two small columns across the river.
Several of the boats lost their way; others succeeded in landing, under
a fire from the vigilant enemy. The regulars, under Captain John
E. Wool, charged up the hill, and took position on the plateau. Here
the enemy attacked him, but after sharp fighting were driven back.
The whole American force then retreated to the beach, where Wool
was reenforced and ordered to scale the heights, which was imme
diate^ done, and a battery at the top of the slope was captured.
General Brock, who had ridden at full speed from Fort George, or
ganized a force to retake the battery, and, after some fighting, the
Americans were driven to the very edge of the precipice. At this
critical juncture, Wool, by exhortation and example, inspired his men
with courage for a charge so furious that the British broke and fled
down the slope. Brock led a fresh attack, in which he fell mortally
wounded. Three other officers, on whom the command successively
fell, were all either killed or desperately wounded, and the attempt
was abandoned.
Lieutenant-colonel Winfield Scott now crossed the river with a
small reinforcement, and assumed command on the heights. He ex
pected to be followed by the militia ; but the militia fell back upon
their privilege, and stubbornly refused to be taken out of the State.
While Scott was preparing the position for defence, he was attacked
by a heavy force of British and savages. Twice he repelled them
with the bayonet ; but a fresh column approaching, the Americans
were driven to retreat. Scrambling over the edge of the bank, they
let themselves down from ledge to ledge and bush to bush, till they
reached the water. But the boats were not there to receive them,
and they were compelled to surrender. The entire American loss in
this action was about one thousand.
The British navy at this time comprised more than a thousand ves-
1 He had served through the Revolution with distinction. Much of the obloquy which
has been heaped upon him is probablv due to Lewis Cass, who hastened to Washington
with the first news, and gave it a coloring largely supplied by his imagination. Cass's
letters, written before and after the surrender, flatly contradict each other as to the state
of affairs at Detroit.
1812.]
NAVAL AFFAIRS.
191
sels, manned by one hundred and forty-four thousand sailors. The
United States had twenty large war vessels and a few gun
boats, together carrying about three hundred guns. The
war party, faithful to Jefferson's naval policy, and confident of the
subj ection of . Great
Britain by the easy
conquest of Canada,
rejected with scorn
all suggestions of
naval warfare. But
in spite of this, and
in spite of the ad
vice of his cabinet,
Madison yielded to
the solicitations and
earnest arguments
of Captains Bain-
bridge and Stewart,
and consented that
the navy, small as
it was, should not
be allowed to re
main idle.
Within one hour
after he was notified
of the declaration of
war, Commodore
John Rodgers put to
sea in the President,
— remembered for
her encounter with
the Little Belt in
1811, — and on the
morning of June
23d gave chase to
the frigate Belvi-
dere, which escaped, with the loss of seven men. The President lost
twenty-two, — sixteen by the bursting of a gun. Rodgers
continued his cruise across the Atlantic, captured an Eng- andBelvi-
lish privateer and seven merchantmen, and re-took an Amer
ican prize. At the same time, an English squadron captured, off New
York, several merchantmen and the brig-of-war Nautilus.
The Essex, Captain David Porter, sailed from New York soon after
Map of Niagara River.
192 WAR WITH ENGLAND. [CHAP. VIII.
the President, captured several prizes, and, on the 13th of August,
fought the Alert, which struck her colors in eight minutes. Only a
week later, the frigate Constitution, Captain Isaac Hull,
tionand fought the British frigate Cruerriere. After rapid broad
side firing and skilful manoeuvring at close range, the ships
grappled, and both parties attempted to board ; but the sea was so
rough and the musketry fire so deadly that this was found to be im
possible. The Constitution freed herself from her antagonist and
shot ahead, just as the Gruerric.re's mainmast and foremast came
down. Her mizzen mast had already gone by the board, and, as the
Constitution was in a position to rake her fore and aft, she struck.
The Americans had lost fourteen men, the British seventy-nine.1
The next morning it was found necessary to blow up the Guerrierc,
as she was in danger of sinking. The admiration and enthusiasm
of the Americans at the result of this battle were only equalled by
the astonishment and anger of the English. It was true that the
American vessel was slightly superior in men and metal, but the
essential difference between the two ships was in seamanship and
gun -practice. The fact remained that frigate had met frigate in a
contest for which both were ready and willing, and in half an hour
the one with all the prestige in her favor was reduced to a helpless
wreck, while the other, whose defeat would have been confidently
predicted, lost less than one fifth as many men as her antagonist, and
only returned to port to dispose of her prisoners. When Captain
Hull landed in Boston, the whole population turned out to welcome
him ; the streets were gay with bunting, triumphal arches were
erected, and he and his officers were entertained at a public din
ner. New York and Philadelphia paid him like honors; Congress
voted him a gold medal, and his crew fifty thousand dollars.
In October the sloop-of-war Wasp, Captain Jacob Jones, fought
wasp and the brig Frolic. The firing was at close range, and the
spars of the Wasp were soon shot away, while the Frolic
was hulled at every discharge. When the vessels grappled, and the
Americans sprang upon the deck of their antagonist, they found only
the man at the wheel and two or three officers, who at once surren
dered. The loss of the Frolic was frightful ; fewer than twenty of
the crew were unhurt. The Wasp had lost only ten men. But be
fore night the British man-of-war Poictiers captured both vessels.
A week later ( October 25th) Commodore Stephen Deca-
United v '
states and tui\ cruising in the frigate United /States, after capturing
Macedonian. . . J
a packet with a large amount of specie, fell in with and en-
1 The Americans had placed sights upon large guns, which the English, as yet, had uot
adopted. Hence the greater accuracy of the American firing.
181-2.] NAVAL VICTORIES. 193
g;iged the frigate Macedonian. The fight lasted two hours, when the
enemy struck. She had lost one hundred and four men ; Decatur
but twelve. The prize reached New York on New Year's Day, and
Decatur met another such reception as had been given to Hull.
It was Bainbridge's turn next. He sailed from Boston, in the
frigate Constitution, in October; but it was December be- constitution
fore he fell in with the British frigate Java, off the coast ;uid Java-
of South America. After two hours of alternate firing and manoeu
vring, the Java struck. She was a complete wreck, every spar hav
ing been shot away, and she lost a hundred and twenty men, her cap
tain beinc amono- the mortally wounded. The Constitution lost
o C"* «/
thirty-four men onlv. The wounded were transferred to the Ameri
can ship, and the Java was blown up. This action gave the Consti
tution the title of '' Old Ironsides," l and Bainbridge was received
on his return as enthusiastically as his brother captains had been.
Thus in the first six months of the war, that had brought only
defeat to the land forces of the Americans, their little navy, which
the Administration had proposed to lay up, which had no friends but
the party out of power, for which Congress had done nothing, and of
which nothing was expected, had six encounters with the enemy, and
in every one came off victorious. England was astounded at the suc
cessful dispute of her supremacy on the sea, and her naval histories
abound with ingenious excuses to explain away what their authors
want the manliness to acknowledge.
Besides these victories, nearly three hundred British merchantmen
had been captured and brought into American ports. The prisoners
numbered over three thousand. In this service the navy had been
largely aided by privateers, which not only seized merchantmen, but
sometimes fought with armed cruisers. If the joy of the war-party
at these brilliant achievements was tempered by their mortification
at the repeated defeats on land, that of the opposition party was
unalloyed at successes obtained where, they had maintained, if war
was justifiable at all, the provocation for it had been given.
Early in the winter of 1812 a new army, of about ten thousand,
enlisted almost entirely from the Western States, was put B.,ni00f
under command of General William Henry Harrison, whose Frenchtown-
military reputation had been gained by his victorv at Tippecanoe.
His immediate object was to concentrate the militia of the Western
States for an expedition against Detroit and Maiden, for the recovery
of the territory lost by Hull's surrender. An advance detachment,
occupying Frenchtown (now Monroe, Michigan), was, on January
1 English journals, in ridiculing the American navy, had described this vessel as " a
bunch of pine boards under a bit of striped bunting."
VOL. IV. 13
194 WAR WITH ENGLAND. [CHAP. VIII.
22, 1813, attacked by fifteen hundred British and savages, under
Colonel Henry Proctor. The Americans were partially sheltered be
hind the " puncheon " fences that inclosed the village gardens, but
the enemy had the advantage of six pieces of artillery. The Amer
ican right wing was soon broken, and General Winchester became a
prisoner. The left wras more stubborn, and inflicted heavy loss upon
the English. Of sixteen men in charge of one howitzer, thirteen
were killed by the Kentucky sharpshooters. Proctor, seeing little
opportunity of success, so wrought upon the fears of his prisoner by
threats of wholesale slaughter that Winchester sent word to Colonel
Madison, his successor in command, to surrender, which Madison did,
under Proctor's solemn promise of protection against the Indians.
The pledge was broken, and, although the fact has been disputed on
English authority, the evidence is beyond question that the British
commander left the wounded to the mercy of his savage allies, who
not only killed all the prisoners, but subjected them in many in
stances to cruel torture. " The Indians are excellent surgeons," said
a halt-breed chief, named Elliot, who was in Proctor's army, when
an appeal was made, before the massacre, that surgical aid be sent to
the wounded Americans.
In consequence of this disaster Harrison built Fort Meigs, at
sipgeof Fort ^ie i'^pids of the Maumee, on the right bank. Proctor laid
siege to this work in April, with his usual threat of mas
sacre in case of resistance. Harrison sent back a defiant reply, and
hurried forward reinforcements, under General Green Clay. Clay's
detachment came down the river in two bodies, one on either bank.
Those on the left carried the batteries gallantly, and spiked the
guns, but were drawn into a fight in the woods with the Indians, and
were finally dispersed or captured. Those on the right fought their.
way through to the fort, and at the same time a strong sallying party
carried and spiked the enemy's lower battery. With his means of
offence so crippled, and the fort made stronger by the reenforcement,
Proctor was compelled to raise the siege.
Three months later, Proctor and Tecumseh, with five thousand
English and savages, attacked Fort Stephenson, on the San-
Attack on „„
t'ort dusky, where Fremont now stands. Ine garrison, com
manded by Major George Croghan, numbered but one hun
dred and sixty men, and had but a single gun. To the summons to
surrender and threat of massacre, Croghan replied that when the
fort should be taken there would be none left to be killed. After a
long bombardment from gunboats and field artillery, the British ad
vanced to the attack on two sides simultaneously. Croghan had
placed his single gun where it would enfilade the north ditch, loaded
1SK3.J
OPERATIONS OX THE LAKES.
195
it to the muzzle, and masked it. The attacking party leapt into the
ditch, led -by a lieutenant, who shouted, " Show the damned Yankees
no quarter ! " The next moment the discharge of the gun swept
down nearly every man, including the lieutenant, who at once raised
his handkerchief on the point of his sword to ask for quarter. An
other column entered the ditch and met the same fate ; and the re
mainder of the storming party retreated in confusion before a sharp
lire of musketry. A single volley repelled the attack on the other
side. The battle was ended, and Proctor retired at night.
Neither belligerent could suffer the other to attain supremacy on
the lakes, if it could be prevented, for on that must depend largely the
successful invasion or defence of Canada. Had Hull's advice been
Battle of Fort Stephenson.
listened to in season on this point, his disgrace and the loss of his
army might have been avoided ; but measures to remedy the blunder
were not long delayed. Neither energy nor money was spared on
either side to occupy the lakes with formidable fleets by the spring of
1813, and on these all movements by land were to depend. Isaac
Chauncey was the American commodore and Sir James Yeo the
British admiral.
Late in April, 1813, Commodore Chauncey 's fleet carried General
Dearborn and fifteen hundred men from Sackett's Harbor, and landed
them two miles west of York (now Toronto), at the other end of
the lake, which was then the capital of Upper Canada. Ostensibly
WAR WITH ENGLAND. [CHAP. VIIT.
tliis was the first movement of a new campaign for the invasion of
Canada ; in reality it was an expedition for the capture of
Capture and -. , . . ., ,. ,,. , , i- i • i
destruction a large ship then building at iork. the possession ot which
Cliauncey thought would give him command of the lakes.
It was the plan of the Secretary of War, Armstrong, to open the
campaign bv an attack upon Kingston, the headquarters of both the
army and navy of the enemy, where even partial success would have
been a telling blow, and complete success would have secured the
command of the St. Lawrence. Excepting that some stores were cap
tured, — to be lost again before the month was over, — the expedi
tion against York was not merely a mistake as the first step of inva
sion, but a waste of time, by which nothing was gained. The ship
which Cliauncey coveted had sailed before his fleet arrived there.
When the landing was made, under the protection of a schooner
commanded by Captain Elliot, the body of English and Indians
under General Sheaffe, who had disputed it, fell back behind fortifi
cations near the town, closely followed by the Americans, led by
General Zebulon M. Pike. Here a halt was called to wait for the
artillery to come up and aid in the assault, when suddenly a maga
zine near the works, containing a hundred barrels of powder, ex
ploded, killing or wounding two hundred of Pike's men — he himself
among the fatally injured — and a few also of the enemy.1 The
check, however, was only for the moment, as the Americans quickly
rallied, and pressed forward into the town. Alter holding the place
four days, they fired the government buildings and departed.2
With the spoils of York, Cliauncey returned to Sackett's Harbor,
on his way, however, landing Dearborn and his force near the mouth
capture of °^ Niagara River. At this point they remained nearly a
jcorge. rnonth awaiting Chauncey's return with an additional force,
when Fort George was taken.
While this was going on at the west end of the lake, Yeo, with
General Prevost, at the east end was on his way to Sackett's Har
bor, which Dearborn left almost defenceless. When Colonel Electus
Backus, in command of the post, heard of Yeo's approach he sent for
General Jacob Brown, a militia officer of the neighborhood, who in
a few hours gathered the militia from the surrounding country, to be
1 It has been affirmed and denied that the magazine was fired by the defenders. Except
as a question of accuracy, there is no reason why, according to the usual English method
of conducting war, there should be any denial.
2 It is a disputed question whether this was done under orders. A human scalp was
found hanging as a trophy on the wall of the legislative chamber ; and it has been sug
gested that the sight of this ghastly reminder of a merciless warfare prompted the destruc
tion of the buildings. The scalp, together with the Speaker's mace and a British stand
ard, was sent to Washington, where the English soldiers found them when they in turn
destroyed the American Capitol a year later.
1813.]
OPERATIONS ON THE LAKES.
197
added to the small force of regulars and volunteers. A body of In
dians was put ashore in the night from the British vessels to attack
the Americans in the rear, and on the morning of the 29th
0 r Saokett s
a landing: and advance was made in front under fire. The Harbor
attacked.
militia broke and fled at once ; but the regulars and volun
teers, with a few pieces of artillery, stood till pressed back by sheer
weight of numbers, when they took refuge in the log barracks. As
the English advanced, General Brown, who had rallied a few of the
militia, made a feint of marching for the boats ; and General Prevost,
fearing that his escape would be cut off, ordered a retreat. It was
made in great disorder, two hundred and sixty dead and wounded
being left behind. The loss on the other side was hardly less severe;
both the colonels, Mills and Backus, were killed, and a hundred and
li
Sackett's Harbor, 1814.
thirty others either killed or wounded ; the stores, worth half a mil
lion dollars, were destroyed, set on fire by a frightened lieutenant.
As Dearborn did not land in person till the day after the fall of
Fort George, General Vincent, its commander, had ample time to
put himself in a defensive position at Burlington Bay. Batt,loof
Here he was overtaken by two brigades sent in pursuit un- stonyCreek-
der General Chandler. The Americans took a strong position on the
eastern bank of Stony Creek where it crosses the great highway that
skirts the lake shore, and posting a guard at a little chapel a quar
ter of a mile in advance, one regiment encamped in the meadows
on the west bank of the creek, but withdrew after night-fall to the
heights above, leaving their camp-fires burning. This final move
ment Vincent had not observed, and he believed, therefore, that he
WAR WITH ENGLAND. [CHAI-. VIII.
could surprise and destroy the camp by a stealthy attack at night.
At midnight his men advanced without firing, and dispatched the
guard at tli3 chapel. When the deserted camp-ground was readied,
they rushed upon it with a shout, expecting to arouse the bewildered
soldiers from their sleep to become an easy prey. But they came
only upon the deserted camp-fires, and as they halted in their waning
light they suddenly found themselves a target for artillery and mus
ketry from along the whole American line. But they soon rallied
and pressed on, broke over the intrenchments, captured several guns,
and became intermingled with their foes. A few shots in the rear
alarmed General Chandler, who faced about a portion of his line to
meet an expected attack from that quarter, and the confusion was
hopelessly confounded. In the darkness and tumult, Generals Chand
ler and Winder became prisoners; and as the British retreated bear
ing them off, they left behind their o\vn commander, General Yin-
cent, who lost his way in the woods and was found next day in a
pitiful plight. The Americans returned to Fort George, Colonel
Burn, on whom the command devolved, hesitating, unfortunately, to
follow the advantage which his troops had manifestly gained.
One more mishap remained to finish the campaign for that season
on the Niagara frontier. Colonel Charles Boerstler was sent at the
head of his regiment of six hundred men to take a British post seven
teen miles distant from Fort George, commanded by Colonel Bishopp.
When about to attack the stone house in which Bishopp was in
trenched, Boerstler' s force was suddenly surrounded by a body of In
dians and English, and compelled to surrender. Three weeks after
ward Bishopp made a similar attempt on the American post at
Black Rock, on the Niagara River, but was intercepted, as- he was
about to retire with his booty, by a small force from Buffalo, and he
and many of his men were killed. On the 15th of July Dearborn re
tired, by permission of the Secretary of War, and the army under
General Boyd remained shut up in Fort George, constantly threat
ened by General Vincent till late in October.
But, inglorious as the summer's work was on the shores of Lake
Ontario, Lake Erie was the scene of an exploit as brilliant as it was
decisive. Early in June a squadron at Presq' Isle (now Erie) was
placed under command of Captain Oliver Hazard Perry. By August
he was afloat with ten vessels, carrying fifty-five guns, and went in
search of the British squadron of six vessels, armed with sixty-five
guns and commanded by Captain Barclay.
On the 10th of September, while at anchor in Put-in Bay, the
enemy was seen approaching, and Perry made ready for battle. The
British line was drawn up with a small vessel in advance, and the
1813.]
PERRY'S VICTORY.
199
flag-ship Detroit next. Perry placed two of his small vessels in a
similar position, the flag-ship Liwrence following. The
JVrrv's vie-
American line was somewhat straggling, and several of the tor? on Lake
enemy concentrated their lire on the Lawrence. They used
long guns, and before the Hag-ship could get near enough for effective
fire she suffered terribly. In two hours she was reduced to a wreck,
and dropped out of the action, and Perry, taking a boat, made his
wav amid a shower of balls to the Niagara. By great effort his line
was closed up and brought to
close quarters, and the fortune
of the day presently turned. In
attempting to form a new line
of battle, the British squadron
was thrown into some confu
sion, and the ^hic/ora, favored
by a sudden breeze, sailed
through it, delivering broad
sides right and left ; then luff
ing across their bows, she raked
two or three of them, while the
small vessels came up and
poured in grape and canister.
Twenty minutes of this work
decided the contest, and the
whole British fleet surrendered.
Perry announced his victory in
a despatch to General Harri
son which has become famous: " We have met the enemy, and they
are ours ; two ships, two brigs, one schooner, and one sloop."
Harrison, meanwhile, had prepared to invade Canada at the west,
by collecting his forces on the peninsula near Sandusky A mounted
regiment, commanded bv Colonel Richard M. Johnson, was sent to
Detroit by land ; the remainder, transported by Perry's fleet, were
landed on the Canada shore of Detroit River. As these advanced on
Maiden, the English General, Proctor, set fire to that place, and re
treated rapidly, intending to make his way to the Niagara. Johnson's
regiment having rejoined him, Harrison started in pursuit, Perry
carrying his baggage and supplies through Lake St. Clair and fifteen
miles up the Thames. Sixty of Proctor's Indians deserted him in a
body, and offered themselves to Harrison, who declined their serv
ices.1 On the oth of October Proctor faced his pursuers, and re-
1 Not solely because they were Indians ; for two hundred friendly red men accompanied
Harrison.
Commodore O. H. Perry.
200
WAR WITH ENGLAND.
[CHAP. VIII.
solved to give battle at a point about forty miles up the Thames,
near Moravian Town.
The road from Detroit here skirted the river on the right or north-
Batticofthe ern bank. The edge of a marsh, five hundred yards dis
tant, ran parallel with it for two miles, and midway be
tween this and the road was a smaller marsh. Proctor planted his
guns in the highway, deployed his regulars between that and the
little marsh, placed a body of British and Indians, under Tecumseh,
between the two marshes, and
threw forward the remainder of
the Indians in the edge of the
larger. The ground was nearly
covered by an open growth of
trees, without underbrush. Har
rison placed his mounted infan
try in front, behind them two
thirds of his remaining troops,
and the rest on the left flank,
turned at a right angle to face
the Indians in the marsh. At
the sound of the bugle the
horsemen advanced. Moving
slowly at first, though under
fire, they increased their pace,
till with irresistible force they
rode through the enemy, kill
ing, capturing, or scattering the
regulars in a few minutes. Proctor — fearful of being called to ac
count for his cold-blooded massacres — drove away in his carriage;
but, being hotly pursued by a dozen well-mounted men, abandoned
the carriage, took to the woods, and escaped. Between the marshes
the fighting was more protracted. Tecumseh's Indians stood their
ground till their chief was killed, and then, at the advance of three
or four fresh regiments, they broke and fled. The savages posted in
the marsh escaped into the woods.1 This battle restored to the Amer
icans what Hull had surrendered, the Territory of Michigan. Three
weeks later, Harrison and his troops returned to Buffalo.
General Armstrong, the Secretary of War, chagrined at the failure
of the summer campaign on Lake Ontario, and attributing it to the
neglect of his own plan for the invasion of Canada, arrived about this
1 Whether Tecumseh was shot by Colonel Johnson, who was wounded in this charge, is
one of those unimportant questions that have been made interesting merely by being dis
puted.
Tecumseh.
1813.] WILKINSON OX THE ST. LAWRENCE. 201
time at Sackett's Harbor, determined that the attempt should be re
newed under his immediate direction. Dearborn had re
tired, with his high military reputation, gained in the Rev- downthest.
olution, almost as completely shattered as Hull's had been
the year before. Wilkinson, Dearborn's successor, was soon to meet
a similar fate. Wilkinson had been called from the south to take
command of this Northern army, consisting of Harrison's force at
Buffalo, Boyd's at Fort George, Lewis's at Sackett's Harbor, and the
right wing on the Vermont frontier, under th'e command of Wade
Hampton, numbering altogether about twelve thousand men. With
the exception of detach
ments left behind to gar- Jf\ *
rison two or three posts, //']/£ / / ' „
Wilkinson was to move ^' ^^^
down the St. Lawrence
with the left wing in
Signature of Richard M. Johnson
boats, w h i 1 e Hampton
was to advance overland to some point on the river, where a junction
was to be made, and the whole army to move on Montreal.
It was not till late in October that Wilkinson had gathered his
forces together at Sackett's Harbor, and some days later before they
were fairly embarked on three hundred boats. Chauncey cleared the
way by driving Yeo into port and keeping him there, and it was not
apprehended that the British could muster men enough on shore to
impede the progress of the expedition. Disaster, nevertheless, at
tended it from the start. The weather was unpropitious, the lake
and river rough ; many of the boats were unfit for service ; some were
driven ashore, and some went to the bottom, to the inevitable delay of
the whole flotilla to supply their places. Every mile of the way was
disputed by the enemy, in front and in rear, sometimes on the river
and sometimes from its banks ; the general-in-chief was always ill
and frequently drunk, and with such a head the body was generally
discouraged and often inefficient. At Prescott the whole army was
debarked to march around that fortified post, while General Brown
undertook to take the flotilla through the river at night, — which he
did with great coolness, losing only a single man, and not one of his
three hundred boats receiving a shot from the constant fire through
which they passed.
At Williamsburg, dangers thickened. Troops were brought up from
Kingston and other places to the number of from fifteen hundred to
two thousand, and farther progress Avas stayed unless these could bo
dispersed. General Boyd was ordered out with fifteen hundred
men, — at a place known as Chrystler's, — and for two hours the
202 WAR WITH ENGLAND. [CiiA«>. VIII.
ground was contested with great spirit. It was so far a drawn battle
that both parties retired from the field in good order, with a loss of
about a hundred killed and two hundred and forty wounded on each
side, — among the Americans General Covington. It would have
been probably anything but a drawn battle, had not Brown been de
tached, and he and Boyd parted at this critical moment by a fifteen
miles' march. A victory at this point would have secured the way
to Montreal, almost without further opposition. But Wilkinson was
neither in a mental nor physical condition to conduct such an expedi
tion, and when, the day after the fight at Williamsburg, word was re
ceived from the other imbecile General on the right wing, Wade
Hampton, that he would not make the junction agreed upon, Wilkin
son eagerly seized upon that pretext to go into winter-quarters.
Hampton had started from Lake Champlain with nearly or quite five
thousand men to march on Montreal at the same time that Wilkin
son's flotilla had left Grenadier Island. Lieutenant-colonel de Sal-
aberry, with a force of four or five hundred men, — hundreds to
Hampton's thousands, — had successfully baffled his advance.
With the main army thus disposed of, the commander-in-chief in
Fort oooi-sc Canada was at liberty to turn his attention to other points
abandoned. Qn ^}Q ^QJ.^^ General Drummond appeared, in Dec-em
ber, on the peninsula west of the Niagara River, between Lakes
Ontario and Erie. At his approach the costly acquisition of the pre
ceding summer, Fort George, was abandoned, the garrison ruthlessly
burning the village of Newark as they fled to Fort Niagara for refuge.
This the enemy captured at night, a week later, without resistance,
killing eighty of the garrison, even those in the hospital, without
mercy. Lewiston, Youngstown, Tuscarora, and Manchester — now
Niagara Falls Village — were destroyed, and all the farms of that re
gion laid waste by the invaders. At Buffalo and Black Rock a
militia force made some resistance ; but this was soon dispersed, and
Riall's regulars and savages sacked the two villages and laid them in
ashes, putting to death most of the few inhabitants who had not fled.
While the campaign, on the whole so disastrous, was going on along
The creek the northern border, there was more successful fighting else
where, though only of local importance, except that it was
the beginning of the career of Andrew Jackson. Wilkinson, before
removing from the Southern Department, had taken Mobile; from the
Spaniards without resistance. This was in accordance with the claim
which the United States maintained and Spain denied, that the east
ern boundary of Louisiana Avas the Perdido River. The seizure of
Mobile was resented, and, though Spain professed to be neutral, the
powerful tribe of the Creeks were aroused to hostilities by supplies
1813.] INDIAN WAR IX THE SOUTH. 203
of arms and ammunition distributed at Pensacola. Whether this was
instigated by England or not, it is at least probable that Tecumseli
was encouraged to go, if he was not directly sent, from Canada to in
flame the Southern Indians against the Americans by his influence
and eloquence. Though the Creeks had attained to some degree of
civilization, and their old men were averse to war, the young men
listened eagerly to the persuasions of the powerful Northern chief
and to temptations held out to them by the Spaniards.
The militia of the Southwestern States were called out to meet this
emergency, and at the first encounter, at Burnt Corn Creek, Massacre at
a body of them were defeated. At Fort Minims, on Lake *'ort-Mimms-
Tensas, a stockade erected by a farmer of that name to protect his
buildings and cattle, a laj-ge number of the inhabitants of that neigh
borhood took refuge, and Governor Claiborne sent for its defence a
garrison of a hundred and seventy-five volunteers. This place was
surprised on the ->0th of August by a band of a thousand Creeks, un
der the command of a noted half-breed, William Weathersford. The
garrison had been repeatedly warned, but when the savages appeared
before the fort there were no sentinels, the arms of the men were
stacked, and the outer gate stood wide open. The defence, neverthe
less, was obstinate and prolonged for hours, for men were fighting,
not merely for their own lives, but that their wives and children
might escape death by torture. Large numbers of the Indians were
killed, but when they succeeded in setting the buildings on fire it was
no longer a fight, but a massacre. Twelve only of the garrison es
caped across the lake, and of the rest they were fortunate who had
fallen early in the day in fair fight.
For these atrocities the Creeks suffered a severe and speedy retribu
tion. The Legislature of Tennessee appropriated three him- Jackson-s
dred thousand dollars for the campaign, and placed five thou- caniPa'gn-
sand men under command of General Andrew Jackson. For the work
in hand, no better material could have been asked than these Western
pioneers; many were mounted, and all were skilled in forest-fighting.
Among them were Sam Houston and Davy Crockett, afterward so
noted. The most serious trouble was in forwarding supplies, and to
secure these Jackson built Fort Deposit, on the Tennessee. He
foraged on all sides, and burned every Indian village in his path.
The enemy were first found at Talluschatches (now Jacksonville,
Alabama), where Colonel John Coffee, with a thousand mounted men,
attacked them. No quarter was asked, and none was given, and not
an Indian was left alive, except the squaws and children, who were
taken prisoners. At Fort Talladega Jackson killed three hundred
out of a thousand who had surrounded a body of friendly Indians.
204
WAR WITH ENGLAND.
[CHAP. VIIT.
At the same time General John Floyd moved from Georgia with a
force of four hundred Indians and a thousand whites. The Creeks
were between two fires, and Floyd was as relentless as Jackson, and
not much less successful. From the West also came an avenging force,
under General F. L. Claibome. He discovered a town of refuge, called
Econochaca, on the Alabama. It was built on holy ground, and no
path led to it. Here the women and children had been sent for
safety, and here, in a little square, the prophets performed their relig
ious rites. Captives of both sexes were standing bound to stakes.
The Canoe Fight.
ready to be burned, when Claiborne's columns appeared. The In
dians fought desperately for a while, and then scattered in every di
rection, while Claiborne sacked and burned the town. It was now
late in December; the forces were melting away by the expiration of
enlistments, and operations for that season were closed.
Among the many episodes of the campaign, and characteristic of
this frontier fighting, is the story of Captain Sam Dale's canoe fight.
He saw floating down the Alabama a large canoe containing eleven
Indians. Five of these were shot from the shore, and Dale then
pushed oil' in a small boat, with three men, to finish the work. Or-
1813.] DOINGS OF THE BRITISH SQUADRON. 205
dering one of his companions to hold the boats together, Dale at
tacked the Indians, with a foot 011 each canoe, till the current drifted
them asunder, leaving him on the larger, confronting four of the en
emy. One was shot from the other boat; two Dale killed; the only
one then left alive was a famous Indian wrestler, Tar-cha-cha. " Big
Sam ! " he shouted, " I am a man — I am coming — come on ! " Club
bing his rifle, he dealt Dale a blow that dislocated his shoulder, and
at the same moment he received Dale's bayonet through his body.
The brilliant naval achievements of the year 1812, — which had
aroused the enthusiasm of both parties, and had almost rec- Thccoast
onc-iled many to the war who had hitherto opposed it,—
were wanting in 1813, and there was nothing, therefore, to compen
sate for the continued disasters on the Northern frontier. In March,
a blockade, previously declared, was extended from Montauk Point,
on the eastern extremity of Long Island, to the mouth of the Missis
sippi. A British squadron, under Admiral Warren, of six seventy-
fours, thirteen frigates, and eighteen sloops-of-war, was, of course,
altogether inadequate to guard so extensive a coast, but was quite
sufficient for serious interference with commerce and the distress of
unprotected maritime towns. Admiral Cockburn, Warren's second in
command, was the terror and scourge of the people along the shores
of Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, and North Carolina. He waged a
predatory warfare upon an almost defenceless people, letting his sail
ors loose upon little villages and farms, who robbed, and burned, and
harried, often, apparently, for no other reason than mere wanton bar
barity, without restraint from their officers. In some places, where
there were the means of defence, as at Lewes, on Delaware Bay, and
Craney Island, near Norfolk, they were repulsed ; but where this was
impossible, their depredations lost the character of Avar, and became
simply those of freebooters. They enticed away the slaves, not to
emancipate, but to sell them in the West Indies. They were accused
of atrocities of which even savages are seldom guilty, and though,
perhaps, the charges were exaggerated, there is evidence enough to
prove that Englishmen showed themselves here, as they have often
done elsewhere, to be in war the most brutal and merciless of civilized
nations. In July, the squadron threatened Washington, and but for
the want of energy in Admiral Warren it could have been taken as
easily then as it was a year later by Ross and Cockburn.
Congress authorized, in the course of the year, the building of four
ships of the line, six frigates, six sloops-of-war, and as many vessels
on the lakes as the operations there might require. A large number
of privateei's were commissioned, and these vessels sometimes did
more honorable service than the capture of unarmed merchantmen.
206 WAR WITH ENGLAND. [CHAP. VJII.
The privateer Decatur captured the war schooner Dominica in an
action in which both vessels fought with great spirit. A still more
signal adventure was achieved on the 5th of July off Sandy Hook
by a fishing-smack, named the Yankee. With forty well-armed men
concealed below, but showing on deck only three men, a calf, a sheep,
and a goose, she sailed out of New York, and soon met with the
British sloop-of-war Eagle, in want of fresh provisions. When the
Yankee was safely along-side, her forty men sprang on board the sloop-
of-war, and, by a well-directed fire, killed several of her men, drove
the rest below, and took possession. They sailed iip the bay with
their prize, and were welcomed by the cheers of thousands on the
Battery, who were celebrating the anniversary of American inde
pendence.
There were other naval engagements, watched by spectators on
shore with the intensest interest. The brig Enterprise, on a cruise
along the coast of Maine in search of privateers, fell in with the Eng
lish brig Boxer, and the fight between them, which lasted three quar
ters of an hour, was within sight of Portland, Maine. The Boxer' $
colors were nailed to the mast, and when she surrendered that expla
nation was given for not hauling them down sooner. Both Lieuten
ant Burrows, commander of the Enterprise, and Captain Blythe, of
the Boxer, were killed, and buried side by side in Portland. The
American brig Argus was less fortunate. She cruised off the coast
of England, taking many merchantmen, till at last she captured one
laden with wine. In transferring the cargo, the crew were allowed
to help themselves, till all were drunk. The prize was set on fire,
and the light was seen by the English brig Pelican, who bore down
upon the Argus and captured her ; not, however, till after a gallant
resistance and the killing of the English captain.
The assumed blockade of the coast was soon practically extended
to all New England, and in June several ships were cruising
antTshan-6 in Massachuset ts Bay. The Chesapeake Avas getting ready
in Boston harbor to go to sea, under the command of James
Lawrence, who had won fame when, as Captain of the Hornet, he
sunk the English sloop-of-war Peacock off the coast of British Gui
ana. One of the English fleet, the Shannon, stood off and on at the
entrance of Boston harbor for days, challenging Captain Lawrence
to come out and fight him. The written challenge, offering the
choice of time and latitude, unfortunately did not reach Boston till
after the Chesapeake had put to sea ; for, had Lawrence felt at liberty
to postpone the encounter till his ship and crew were in a condition
to meet it, whatever might have been the result, there would have
been, at least, some equality between the antagonists. As it was, the
1813.] NAVAL BATTLES. '207
fight was between ships, one of which was in perfect sea-going con
dition, in thorough fighting trim, her officers and crew, familiar with
and confident in each other and their ship, under admirable disci
pline ; the other, not ready for sea, with a new crew, many of whom
were discontented and almost mutinous for want of prize-money al
ready due, with officers wanting experience and unknown to each
other and to the men, and all without the discipline so absolutely
essential for a naval battle. If unwritten tradition may be trusted,
both the officers and men of the Chesapeake were seen about the
streets of Boston on the morning of the day she sailed, in a condition
that rendered it easy to foresee the result of the impending battle.
The popular excitement and enthusiasm, however, hardly left to
Lawrence any alternative but to accept Broke's evident defiance. As
the Chesapeake got under way, on the morning of the 1st of June,
multitudes watched her from the high hills along the coast, saw both
ships enveloped in the smoke of battle, and knew the result when the
smoke cleared away and both stood out to sea.
The Shannon opened fire as soon as her guns could be brought to
bear upon her opponent, but the Chesapeake was silent till a broad
side could be effective, and then for about eight minutes the roar was
continuous. By this exchange, the British frigate appears to have
been the greater sufferer in men, but the American was so injured
that she became unmanageable ; her mizzen-iigging fouled with the;
Shannon s forechains, and she was open to a raking fire. The board
ers were called ; but at this moment Lawrence was shot through the
body, and, as he was carried below, his last commands, it is said,
were : " Tell the men to fire faster, and not give up the ship. Fight
her till she sinks ! "' The order was given, " Boarders away ! " — but
in the absence of all discipline, before the boarders could be brought
to quarters, the enemy had swarmed over the decks, and were pour
ing a destructive fire down the hatchways. The ship was theirs after
an engagement that lasted only fifteen minutes. For so short a bat
tle, the loss of life was unusually large, as the Chesapeake had forty-
eight killed and nearly a hundred wounded ; the Shannon, twenty-
three killed, and over fifty wounded. Broke was badly wounded, and
Lawrence died in a few days.
On the same day with this unfortunate encounter in Massachusetts
Bay, which aroused more despondency on one side and more exulta
tion on the other than such a catastrophe warranted, Decatur was
chased into Xew London with the Macedonian, the United States,
and the Hornet, by a larger force of the blockading squadron. Nor
did any of the ships get to sea again while the war continued.
They were not in danger of capture, for the militia of Connecticut
208
WAR WITH ENGLAND.
[ClIAP. VIII.
rallied to the defence of the harbor in such numbers as to render any
attack upon the ships hopeless ; but the naval commanders chafed
under their enforced idleness, and made more than one attempt to
evade the ships of the enemy. Decatur complained that all these
attempts were defeated by traitors on shore, who warned the ships
outside of his proposed movements by burning blue-lights. He and
his brother officers unquestionably believed that this was done, though
it was as emphatically denied by some of the most respectable inhabi
tants of the town that any such signals were given. It was probably
true, though less frequently, perhaps, than was asserted. But if true,
it is far more likely that the treachery was confined to some very tew
persons, if more than one was engaged in it, than that it was the act
of many. Nevertheless, so violent, bitter, and unreasoning was the
partisan rancor of the time that the whole Federal party was held
responsible for this aid given to the enemy, and all Federalists stig
matized henceforth, so long as the party had a name to live by, as
"• Blue Lights." That Decatur's ships remained safely at anchor till
the end of the war, protected from a powerful British squadron by
the Federal State of Connecticut, was lost sight of in the determina
tion to make those obnoxious who believed the war was unwise, that
nothing would be gained by it, and who gave to it, therefore, no vol
untary support.
The Graves of the Captains, Portland, Maine.
CHAPTER IX.
WAR WITH ENGLAND.
NEGOTIATIONS FOR PEACE. — JACKSON'S MOVEMENTS AT THE SOUTH. — THIRD CAM
PAIGN ON THE NIAGARA. — BATTLE OF LUNDY'S LANE. — BATTLE OF PLATTSBURG.
— CAPTURE OF WASHINGTON. — EXPEDITION AGAINST BALTIMORE. — NAVAL BAT
TLES OF THE THIRD YEAR. — BITTERNESS OF PARTY FEELING. — THE REMEDY OF
DISUNION. — THE HENRY CONSPIRACY. — THE HARTFORD CONVENTION. — DEFENCE
OF NEW ORLEANS. — THE TREATY OF GHENT.
AT the opening of the year 1814 the prospects of the war were
gloomy in the extreme. The power of Napoleon had been
J . . Condition of
broken at Leipsic, the British armament in American waters affairs in
was gradually increasing, and there seemed to be no reason
— unless she was tired of war — why England might not, with unlim
ited reinforcements of veteran troops, speedily overwhelm the Amer
icans. It was only after much debate that an act was passed to in
crease the regular army to sixty-six thousand men, enlisted for five
years, with a bounty of a hundred and twenty-four dollars to every
recruit. That this increased army should not be used for purposes of
invasion, but should be confined to defensive measures for the estab
lishment of rights infringed upon by Great Britain, was voted down
by a strictly party vote. Congress also authorized a new loan of
twenty-five million, and a re-issue of ten million in treasury notes.
Three times during the war, the Russian Government had offered
its services as mediator for peace, which had been declined by Eng
land. But now a proposition was offered for direct negotia- xegotiations
tions, either at London or at Gottenburg. This was ac- forPeace-
cepted at once ; Gottenburg was chosen as the place, and John Quincy
Adams, James A. Bayard, Henry Clay, and Jonathan Russell were
appointed commissioners, to whom Albert Gallatin, then in Europe,
was afterward added. Their instructions were at first to insist upon
an absolute discontinuance of search and impressment, and to repeat
the offer, made at the beginning of the war, to exclude British sea
men from American vessels and to surrender deserters, — a compro
mise which, had it been offered any time during the ten previous
years, would have made war almost impossible.
VOL. IV. 14
210 WAR WITH EXGLAXD. [CHAP. IX
Active preparations were made, meanwhile, for the campaigns of
Jackson's the new year. At the South, Jackson, who had been corn-
campaign, missioned a major-general, was left at Fort Strother in Jan
uary with nine hundred raw recruits, his late army having gone home
at the expiration of their term of service, in spite of all entreaties.
With his fresh recruits and two hundred Indians he marched into the
country of the Creeks, fought two battles, and lost about a hundred
men. In February his army was increased by fresh enlistments to
five thousand men, including a regiment of regulars.
At Horseshoe Bend, in the Tallapoosa, where a peninsula of a hun
dred acres, with a neck not more than five hundred feet wide, is en
closed by the stream, a thousand Creek warriors had encamped and
thrown up a rude breastwork across the neck. While Jackson
marched directly against this with nearly three thousand men, he sent
General Coffee, with the mounted men and friendly Indians, to gain
the enemy's rear. A two hours' cannonade had no effect on the breast
work ; but when a cloud of smoke showed that Coffee had crossed
the river and set fire to the village, Jackson's men stormed the work,
fought hand to hand through the loop-holes for a Avhile, and then,
leaping the defences, charged with the bayonet, and the Indians
broke and fled. The}^ neither asked for quarter nor received it.
Whether attempting to hide themselves in the thickets, or to swim
the stream, they were hotly pursued, and if overtaken were mer
cilessly shot.
The opening movements at the North were discouraging, and
seemed to promise a repetition of the failures of the two preceding
years. An attempt was made to recover Michilimackinac, which
ended in the repulse of the force landed on the island, and the capture
afterward by the English of the two schooners sent upon the expedi
tion. Wilkinson ended as he had begun, in imbecile efforts
Canada 3 .
again in- which accomplished nothing. Advancing from his winter-
varied.
quarters on Salmon River to Lake Champlain, he planned an
expedition into Canada which should cut off the upper from the
lower province. As the first step he proposed to take La Colle Mill.
A considerable force was sent from Champlain Village over a difficult
road when the whole country was buried in a foot of snow, and
though the assault was made with much spirit it was easily repulsed.
The act was the last of Wilkinson's military career. A spring
Wilkinson freshet forbade farther advance movements, and lie with-
oonrt-inar- drew his army within the boundaries of the United States.
He was called to answer for his many mishaps and want of
generalship before a court-martial, and though he was acquitted by
the court he was condemned at the bar of public opinion.
1814.] BATTLE OF CHIPPEWA. 211
The Secretary of War, General Armstrong, still adhered to his
plan for the invasion of Canada by the river St. Lawrence, and, as a
necessary preliminary step, the taking of Kingston. To mask this
movement, and that he might leave no enemy in his rear, General
Brown, who had been made a major-general, commenced operations
on the peninsula between Erie and Ontario. On the evening of the
2d of July he crossed the river from Buffalo, invested Fort Erie, and
compelled its surrender. Following up this advantage, he pursued a
British corps of observation down the river, till it crossed Battloof
Chippewa Creek and united with the main force under Ki- t'hlw)ewa-
all. The American advance fell back across Street's Creek, where it
was joined by the main body on the morning of the 5th. In the
afternoon Scott ordered out his brigade for a dress parade in the
little plain beyond the creek. As he approached the bridge, General
Brown, riding in from the front, exclaimed, " You will have a bat
tle !" and galloped past to bring up Ripley's brigade. The head of
the column was scarcely on the bridge when the British, concealed by
the woods that fringed the creek, opened fire. " Nothing but Buffalo
militia ! " said Riall, as the Americans came into view ; but when he
saw them pass the bridge without wavering, and deploy under fire,
" Why, these are regulars ! " he exclaimed, with profane emphasis.
General Peter B. Porter, with a force of militia and Indians, press
ing forward on Scott's left, attacked the British right. Porter's men
fought well till a heavy column charged them with the bayonet, when
they gave way. But Major Jesup moved up and covered the exposed
flank, and the fighting became furious along the whole front. When
Scott observed that the British right wing had separated from the
line to engage Jesup, he put himself at the head of a regiment and
charged obliquely against the exposed flank, while at the same time,
and in the same manner, Leavenworth's regiment charged the left.
Through the gap between these charging columns, Towson's battery
poured in canister with rapidity and effect. The British line first
crumbled, and then retreated in great disorder. Jesup at the same
time defeated the detached wing, and the rout was complete. Riall
sent a portion of his troops to the forts at the mouth of the Niagara,
and with the remainder retreated to Burlington Heights. His In
dians, disgusted at the defeat, all deserted him.
With this well-fought battle the invasion of Canada seemed more
promising. Brown determined to move upon Kingston along the
lake shore, trusting to the cooperation of Chauncey's fleet. " For
God's sake, let me see you," he wrote to Chauncey. " All accounts
agree that the force at Kingston is very light We can threaten
Forts George and Niagara, carry Burlington Heights and York, and
212
AVAR WITH ENGLAND.
[CHAP. IX.
proceed direct to Kingston and carry that. We have between us suf
ficient means to conquer Canada in two months, if there is prompt
and zealous cooperation, before the enemy can be greatly reenforced."
But no cooperation came ; Chauncey was ill in body, — still more ill
in mind. He had something better to do, he thought, than carry pro
visions and stores for the troops on shore, — and did nothing.
To move down the lake without the aid of the fleet, was manifestly
impracticable, and Brown was compelled to turn back upon
learning that lliall was at Queenstown, and had been reen
forced by General Drummond from York. Scott — now a
brigadier-general — was sent forward with a corps of observation.
Miller's Charge at Lundy's Lane.
As his troops emerged into a cleared space, bounded on the north by
Lundy's Lane, — a road that runs at right angles to the river, nearly
opposite the Falls, — they Avere confronted by the entire British force,
drawn up in the lane. The Americans deployed in line of battle, and
Scott at once engaged the right wing, sending Jesup's battalion to
1814.] BATTLE OF LUNDY'S LANE.
turn the left. Both movements were successful, Jesup taking
tween two and three hundred prisoners, among them General Riall
and some other officers, though most of the men soon afterward es
caped. The fight had continued for an hour before reinforcements
reached the ground, General Brown leading the way. But notwith
standing the discomfiture of the enemy, the General saw, on a survey
of the field, that no permanent impression could be made upon their
position wrhile their centre held an eminence on which they had
planted seven guns. Colonel James Miller, being ordered to take this
battery, answered briefly, " I '11 try, sir," and put his men in motion.
It was now dusk, and their approach was hidden by a fence. The
gunners were standing with lighted matches in their hands, when
Miller's men, in obedience to whispered orders, crept silently up to
the fence, thrust their muskets through it, shot down every man at
the guns, rushed forward in the face of a sharp infantry fire, and
captured them. The American line was re-formed, at right angles to
its first position, facing west. The British also re-formed, and made
twTo desperate but vain attempts to retake the battery. Generals
Brown and Scott were wounded, and the command devolved upon
Ripley, who, after waiting half an hour in expectation of a fresh at
tack, withdrew from the field, carrying off his wounded. The enemy
returned, and encamped on the deserted ground. The battle of Lim-
dy's Lane — or Bridgewater, or Niagara, as it is variously called —
was one of the hardest ever fought, considering its numbers. Of the
two thousand Americans engaged, seven hundred and forty-three
were killed or wounded ; of the four thousand British, eight hun
dred and seventy-eight. Brown, Scott, and Jesup were all seriously
wounded, — Scott so severely as to withdraw him from active service
for the rest of the war.
The army was compelled to fall back upon the camp on the Chip-
pewa, for want of food and water, and the enemy claimed the victory
as the latest occupants of the field. Ripley, who wanted energy and
perseverance, but not courage, left the guns captured by Miller upon
the hill, and the enemy recovered them. For this negligence, and
for an unnecessary hasty retreat to Fort Erie, when he should have
held the banks of the Chippew^a, Ripley's command was given to
General Edmund P. Gaines, till the Major-general's wounds should
permit him again to take the field. Drummond followed up the
army to Fort Erie, where a midnight assault on the 14th of August
cost him nearly a thousand men, and proved an utter failure. In
the regular siege that followed, Drummond brought his giegeofFort
works so close that shells and hot shot were thrown daily Ene'
into the fort. One of these disabled General Gaines, and General
214 WAR WITH ENGLAND. [CHAP. IX.
Brown resumed the immediate command. The enemy's camp was
two miles in the rear, and one third of his force was thrown forward
each day to work on the parallels. On the 17th of September a sud
den sortie with two thousand men overwhelmed the working party,
dismounted the guns, and destroyed the works. But this was not
done without hard fighting, in which the Americans lost nearly five
hundred men, and the British nine hundred. Four days later, Drum-
mond abandoned the siege, and in October the Americans destroyed
Fort Erie, and returned to their own shore. This campaign on the
Niagara had indeed no practical result, except the destruction of a
village or two and the digging of a thousand graves; but it served to
dispel the despondency to which even the war party had yielded un
der the reverses of the two previous years, and aroused a hope in
those who opposed the war that, though it might be unwise, it Avas
not to be dishonorable.
But the summer passed away, and both armies — the British being
now much the larger — still stood on the defensive on their own side
of the border. Sir George Prevost proposed, or was ordered by the
Home Government, to invade New York as far as Crown Point, at
least, by the pathway contended for so often in previous wars.
Chance favored him early in September, for General Izard, who had
succeeded Hampton in the command of the right wing of the Amer
ican army, was ordered, late in August, to relieve General Brown, be
leaguered at that time in Fort Erie by General Drummond. Izard
moved reluctantly — indeed he never moved in any other way —
from Plattsburg, leaving General Alexander Macomb behind him in
command of a small force, with the cheerful and encouraging predic-
tipn that it and the commander would soon be in the hands of the
enemy. Before advancing to Crown Point, Prevost believed it to be
absolutely necessary to reduce Plattsburg, and Macomb — not in the
least influenced by Izard's prophecy, unless it were that he was stim
ulated to prove it false — prepared with great skill and energy to
give the enemy a warm reception. In all that he 'did he was ably
sustained by Lieutenant Thomas Macdonough, with a fleet of ten
barges or gunboats and four larger vessels on the lake. Izard had
left not more than about twenty-five hundred effective men at Platts
burg, and to these Macomb added three thousand more of volunteer
militia by appeals to New York and Vermont. Prevost advanced
with fourteen thousand men along the shores of the lake, accom
panied by four ships and twelve barges, under the command of Cap
tain Downie.
At Plattsburg the Saranac runs nearly parallel with the lake shore
for a short distance, and then turning sharply flows into the Bay. On
1814.]
BATTLE OF PLATTSBURG.
215
the little peninsula the Americans had constructed three redoubts and
two block houses, and these the British proposed to carry by an ap
proach from the rear, while Downie should engage Macdon- Battle of
ough on the lake, and fleet and town be taken together. Plattsburg-
In accordance with this plan, when, on the llth of September, the
British flotilla rounded Cumberland Head and the naval fight was
begun, the troops on shore, under a heavy artillery fire, attempted to
cross the Saranac at several points, at all of which they were either
speedily driven back, or soon recalled by intelligence of Downie's
utter defeat.
When the British Admiral advanced to the attack he found Mac-
donough's four vessels drawn up in line nearly across the mouth of
Plattsburg.
the harbor, with his ten galleys inside and opposite the intervals be
tween the larger vessels, calmly awaiting his opponent.1 The Eng
lish bore down steadily, firing as they advanced. The first American
gun, pointed by Macdonough himself, raked the deck of the English
flag-ship Conjiance ; then the whole line opened, and for an hour
everything was ablaze, and the fire only slackened as gun after gun
was disabled. The first broadside from the Confiance struck down
forty men on the flag-ship Saratoga, and ultimately every gun of her
1 Macdonough had eightv-six guns and eight hundred and fifty men ; Downie ninety-
five guns and a thousand men, and two more barges than Macdonough.
216 AVAR WITH ENGLAND. [CHAP. IX.
starboard battery was disabled. But Macdonough had laid a kedge
broad off each bow, by means of which she was now swung com
pletely round, and the larboard battery brought to bear upon her
antagonist. The same manreuvre was attempted on board the Con-
fiance, but unsuccessfully, "and she was soon compelled to strike her
colors. Those that had not already surrendered followed her example,
though most of the galleys drifted out into the lake, before they
could be taken possession of, and escaped. The victory was com
plete both on the water and on shore. Prevost immediately recalled
his troops and abandoned his plan of invading New York.
As the British army in Canada had been largely reenforced by
troops released by the close of the war in Europe, the result of the
attack on Plattsburg, where many of these veterans were so sig
nally defeated, renewed the spirits of the war party ; and it was
sadly in need of encouragement, for along the sea-coast the sum
mer was one of disaster. Ships, as well as land forces, were re
leased by peace abroad ; the blockading squadron was increased ; the
whole coast was kept in a state of perpetual alarm at every appearance
of a sail in the offing. Sir Thomas Hardy ran into Eastport in
July, captured that place without resistance, and declared by procla
mation that the islands of Passamaquoddy Bay were restored to the
Crown. The frigate Adams, which had gone into the Penobscot to
refit, was destroyed at the village of Hampden, and Castine, a few
miles below, was taken by General Gosselyn, after the small garrison
at that post had blown up the fort and retreated. At Machias the
fort was abandoned, arrd the place taken without much resistance by
General Pilkington. There was no force in that part of the country
to resist so formidable an invasion, except the militia, not half armed,
and without discipline, and the valley of the Penobscot was seized as
a conquered province.
In August, Hardy appeared off Stonington, Connecticut, but met
there with another kind of reception. He gave the inhabitants one
hour to remove the women and children, and then bombarded the lit
tle town steadily for three days, throwing into it fifty tons of iron in
solid shot, bomb-shells, carcasses, and stink-pots. The defence was
gallantly conducted by about a score of men, who handled two or
three old guns so well, particularly an eighteen-pounder at the point
of the peninsula, as not only to prevent the enemy from landing,
but to inflict upon him a loss of seventy men, killed or wounded.
Of the defendants seven only were wounded.
But an event more disastrous than the loss of the villages and a
portion of the domain at the eastern extremity of the country, and in
striking contrast with the stubborn defence of Stonington, occurred
1814.]
CAPTURE OF WASHINGTON.
217
in the capture of Washington. On the eastern coast the enemy ap
peared suddenly when he appeared at all, would make, or
threaten to make, a landing as he found the militia more march to
, , . . • , Washington.
or less ready to receive him ; and these were more or less
ready as their towns were likely, for any reason, to be attacked.
In all cases the attacks were surprises. But at Washington, in all
the complication of miserable circumstances, there was no element
of suddenness, no palliation possible for want of warning, no excuse
for want of time. The capture of the city was an absolute and un
mitigated disgrace, involving in dishonor every member of the Gov-
Stonington Bombarded.
ernment, and inflicting upon the people a humiliation which no other
nation, in the loss of its capital under like circumstances, was ever
called upon to bear.
In August, General Ross, with thirty-five hundred men, the finest
regiments from Wellington's army, arrived in the Chesapeake, where
he was reenforced by a thousand marines from Cockburn's blockad
ing squadron. The whole force was landed at Benedict, on the
Patuxent, about forty miles below Washington. There was nothing
surprising in this approach of a formidable force. Cockburn's fleet
for move than a year had commanded and harassed the coast of the
Middle States, expeditions from it continuing to descend at will upon
defenceless villages, plundering without mercy and destroying with-
218 WAR WITH EXGLAXD. [CiiAr. IX.
out reason, with small regard to the ordinary laws of war, the farms
and plantations near the shore. The year before, as has been already
related, this fleet had moved up the Chesapeake, and so infatuated
was party feeling that a proposition in Congress to adopt some meas
ures to avert a threatened danger was denounced as an attack upon
the Administration. It was better to suffer from fear of the enemy
than to owe safety to the suggestion of the opposition. Even two
months before Ross landed at Benedict, the Government had been
warned by Mr. Gallatin in London of the object of the reenforce-
ments sent to Chesapeake Bay, and, though the subject was brought
before a cabinet meeting by the President, no efficient steps were
taken. There needed to be still more " braying in a mortar " before
the driving out of foolishness. Madison consented to be alarmed,
but would not condescend to take advice from Armstrong, the Sec
retary of War, whom he personally disliked. The Secretary of State,
Monroe, was too wise to accept warning from either circumstances or
persons.
But when Ross had actually landed at the head of forty-five hun
dred veteran troops, with the evident purpose of marching either
upon Annapolis, Alexandria, or Washington, there was a sudden
awakening to the necessity of defence. Brigadier-general William
H. Winder had, indeed, been placed in command, a few weeks before,
of a district where, at most, there were only five hundred regulars and
two thousand militia to respond to his orders. No effective prep
arations, however, were made to put even this small force in a condi
tion to take the field, and no requisitions were made, till too late, for
forces from the neighboring States.
Ross advanced up the peninsula with great caution, and even hesita
tion. He could not believe that the path was open before him to go
where he pleased without let or hindrance, and the concurrent testi
mony of all English narratives of that march is, that it could have
been turned back any day had a few determined persons obstructed
the road by felled trees.1 It was not till Cockburn joined Ross that
1 The late Judge William Cranch, of Washing-ton, an eye-witness of the invasion,
wrote on the llth of September, 1814, to his sister in Massachusetts: " On Thursday,
August 18, information was received that the Enemy was ascending the Patuxent in large
force, and the militia of the District and adjacent parts of Maryland and Virginia were
called upon to turn [out] en masse. The requisition was obeyed slowly. The Fairfax
militia, being that nearest to Alexandria, was not ordered to muster untill the Tuesday
following (the 23d). On Saturday, the 20th, information was received that the enemy was
disembarking, and had landed a large force. Reports varied as to their number from
3,000 to 17,000, and what is astounding is that General Winder had no correct information
on that subject." Further on, in the same letter, he says: "The number of the British
forces which were in the expedition to Washington is not yet satisfactorily ascertained. I
am inclined to believe from all I hear that the number did not exceed 4,000. Winder had
1814.] CAPTURE OF WASHINGTON. 219
some energy and determination was put into the General's movements
by the Admiral's advice to push on to Washington. It is by no means
certain that Ross had proposed at first to do anything more than to
destroy Admiral Barney's flotilla of gunboats, which had been a con
stant annoyance to the British in Chesapeake Bay, but had now been
compelled to withdraw for safety up the Patuxent as far as Marlbor-
ough. Instead of protecting these boats by troops and staying Ross's
progress at that point, the Secretary of the Navy, Jones, saved the
British General the trouble of removing this impediment out of his
way, by ordering the fleet to be burned, and Barney and his Barney-sflo.
men to retreat toward Washington. It was only that frenzy tillaburned-
of terror which had seized all official persons that could have
prompted an act depriving the Americans of their best arm of de
fence, and giving the invaders an advantage which alone would have
been worth the risk of the expedition.
Inspirited by this success thrown at their heads, Ross and Cock-
burn pushed on to Bladensburg, where Winder had formed his line
of battle in a commanding position. The General had no confidence
in his troops, and little in himself, and listened to conflicting advice
on all sides, when he should have turned a deaf ear to everybody ;
permitted Monroe to change his disposition of troops, almost at the
last moment, without remonstrance ; more anxious that his officers
should understand which way they should take in retreat than zeal
ous in urging them not to retreat, but to fight, and fearful, apparently,
lest somebody should be hurt. Madison and his cabinet Avere on the
field, all anxious to instruct the unfortunate and perplexed General,
except the President, who occupied himself with pencilled bulletins to
his wife at Washington, urging her to flight, and who said, — as Wil
kinson asserts, — " Come, General Armstrong, come, Colonel Monroe,
let us go, and leave it to the commanding General." In truth, it mat
tered but little to whom it was left, for Winder was quite right in
assuming that no dependence could be placed on the crowd of men
gathered upon the hills with arms in their hands, but utterly without
military discipline and confronted by veteran soldiers.
They fled as the Congreve rockets of the enemy burst in their
faces, and the real fighting was left for Commodore Barney and Cap
tain Miller of the marines, with six hundred men, who rushed for-
5,000, but they were principally raw militia huddled together not an hour before the battle,
without any confidence in each other. Yet, I believe the fault was in the officers. But
the great fault was in the Administration in taking no measures of defence after the re
peated menaces and warnings they have had. There has been a wanton sacrifice of the
public property and the national pride. A wouud is inflicted which ages will not cure, and
a scar will be left which time will scarcely efface." — MS. papers in the possession of Judge
Crunch's daughter, Mrs. Erastus Brooks.
220 WAR WITH ENGLAND. [CHAP. IX.
ward to dispute the passage of a bridge. The artillery they served
swept down the advancing British column, and compelled it to give
way. For more than an hour this small band of seamen and marines
held the enemy, outnumbering them three or four to one, at bay,
returned charge for charge, and again and again broke into their
serried ranks. Had the least support been given them, the fortune of
the day might have been turned ; but the only body of militia which
covered their flank, and had not already run away, broke and fled at
the first charge. Barney's men, thus exposed, were surrounded ; he
and Miller were both shot down and severely wounded, and were
compelled at last to surrender. Around them lay as many dead of
the enemy as the sailors and marines numbered at the beginning of
the fight.
The Americans fell back upon Washington, if that can be said of
a precipitate flight, when many were seeking for safety, no matter
where, like the President and other official gentlemen, many making
their way to their homes. When Washington was reached, however,
— and the British followed close that evening upon their footsteps,
— Winder, still true to his one comprehensive rule of military tac
tics and the art of war, ordered farther retreat, and the city was
abandoned to the destroyers, — the destroyers that came, as well as
those who remained, the chief difference between them being that one
side destroyed what was their own, the other the property of an en
emy. The worst the British could have done to the navy yard below
the city, if they could have taken a place so easily defended, would
have been to destroy it; and in anticipation of that possibility the
Secretary of the Navy ordered that it should be given to the flames.
The loss in provisions, in marine stores, in guns, in munitions of war,
in ships on the stocks or afloat, in buildings, in arms, was enormous ;
but it did not seem to occur to President, generals, or cabinet officers
that even if this great accumulation of property was not saved by de
fence, there was at least the chance of its being spared by accident.
But in the frenzy of a popular panic like this, men take leave of their
reason .
The spirit of wanton destruction seemed to be aroused by the
craze of wild affright. The lurid glare of the burning of the largest
navy yard in the country by those who should have protected it at all
hazards, was responded to by the glow of the lesser fires kindled in
the city by the enemy. There were orders to spare, and some at
tempt to save, private property, and the Post-office building was per
mitted to remain unharmed because it contained the Patent Office,
which was of value to civilization. But the President's mansion and
the unfinished Capitol were burned, — one of the stories of the time
1814.]
CAPTURE OF WASHINGTON.
221
being that Cockburn leaped into the Speaker's chair, as his follow
ers filled the halls of Congress, and shouted, "• Shall this harbor of
Yankee democracy be burned ? All for it will say Aye ! " The pub
lic libraries and such of the public archives as had not previously
been removed to a place of safety were burned. Nothing was spared,
except the Patent Office and jail, that could be considered public
Cockburn in the Chair.
property, or that could be put to public use.1 The next night the
invaders retired with the utmost caution and without beat of drum,
leaving their camp-fires burning brightly, lest they should be pursued
by the force which Ross believed the destruction of the capital must
needs arouse to overwhelm him. But he regained his ships without
molestation, except some annoyance from the country people.
1 " They destroyed everything public except the Patent Office and the jail. The Patent
Office was spared at the intercession of Doctor Thornton who superintends it, and who as
sured the officer that it contained nothing but private property and models of the arts of
the utmost use to the world." — Letter of Judge Crunch.
222 WAR WITH ENGLAND. [CHAP. IX.
It was a natural, almost inevitable, consequence that this exploit
should be followed by some other of a similar character.
against Bai- On the 6th of September Cochrane's fleet moved up the
Chesapeake ; on the llth entered the Patapsco, and landed
nine thousand men at North Point, a dozen miles below Baltimore.
They were not unexpected. Sir Peter Parker, some days before, had
landed a force on the eastern shore of Maryland, and in a skirmish
with militia was killed The citizens of Baltimore, warned in time,
had put up fortifications, and Major-general Samuel Smith, in com
mand, called out the available troops to repel invasion. Ross, on
landing at the head of his advance, was picked off by a sharp-shooter,
and, mortally wounded, carried to his boats, where he died in a few
minutes. There was to be no repetition here of the experiences be-
Battie of l°w Washington. For three hours the three thousand vol-
North Point. unteers, from Maryland and Pennsylvania, led by General
John Strieker, withstood the enemy, till the right wing was turned,
when they fell back upon the intrenchments. The British did not
follow till next day, but finding their opponents reenforced and
strongly placed, retired in the darkness of the ensuing night.
Meanwhile sixteen vessels moved up the bay, and opened fire upon
the immediate defences of Baltimore. For twenty-four hours they
poured an uninterrupted stream of rockets and shells into Fort
McHenry, Fort Covington, and the connecting intrenchments. Fort
McHenry was compelled to bear this bombardment almost in silence,
as its largest guns could not reach the enemy's vessels, anchored at a
safe distance.1 At night a strong force was landed to attack the forts
in the rear ; but, being discovered, it was subjected to a fire of red-
hot shot, that inflicted severe loss and thwarted the project. The
enterprise was then abandoned, and Cochrane retired with his fleet.
Of the four notable battles this year on the ocean, all but the first
resulted iu victory for the Americans. Captain David Por-
Naval en- J . x . ,
gagements tcr, in the innate JVssex, had made a long cruise round
of 1814. . . . °. . .
Cape Horn, creating terrible havoc with British commerce
in the Pacific, and securing many rich prizes, one of which he con
verted into a war-ship, and named her the Essex Junior. But the
English Admiralty sent out the frigates Phoebe and Cherub, under
Captain James Hillyar, with orders to destroy or capture the Essex at
all hazards, and by these two ships Porter was blockaded in the har
bor of Valparaiso. On one occasion the hostile vessels almost fouled,
and Porter called away his boarders, and in a moment more would
have been on the Englishman's deck; but Hillyar so earnestly pro-
1 While watching the flag on this fort, Francis S. Key, who had gone to the British fleet
to negotiate an exchange of prisoners, wrote the first draft of the Star-Spangled Banner.
1814.]
NAVAL BATTLES OF THE THIRD YEAR.
223
tested he had no intention of attacking in a neutral port, that he was
permitted to withdraw his ship from her suspicious position. At
length, on the 28th of March, Porter attempted to put to sea ; but
the Essex was suddenly disabled by a heavy squall, and being pur
sued, he tacked about and reentered the harbor. The enemy fol
lowed, and, regardless of the neutrality of the port, took Essexand
position under the stern of the Essex, and opened fire. The Phcebe-
American ran out three long guns at the stern ports, and in half an
hour compelled both of his antagonists to draw off for repairs. On
returning to the attack, they took position on Porter's starboard quar-
Fort McHenry.
ter, out of reach of carronades, and with their long guns fired at the
Essex as at a target. Porter then ran down upon the Cherub, and
after a short but lively action at close range, she was driven off. But
the Phoebe edged away, and kept up a steady fire ; at one gun on
board the Essex three whole crews were swept away in succession.
Porter tried to run her ashore ; but the wind suddenly shifted, the
springs on his cables were repeatedly shot away, and, to complete his
misfortunes, the ship took fire. As the flames burst up the hatch
ways, he ordered all who could swim to jump overboard and make
for the shore. The helpless wreck was easily raked, three fifths of
her men were killed or wounded, and at last Porter struck his colors.
224
WAR WITH ENGLAND.
[CHAP. IX.
The sloop-of-war Peacock, Captain Warrington, captured the Brit-
other en- ish brig Epervier, on the 29th of April, after an action of
gagements. fo^y minutes ; and her sister ship, the Wasp, Captain Blake-
ley, captured the brig Reindeer, after a hot battle, in June, and in
September so badly injured the brig Avon that she sank. Within
twenty days the Wasp took three more prizes, and she was never
heard from afterward. The American privateer. Creneral Armstrong.
Captain Samuel C. Reid, had put into the port of Fayal, Azores, in
The Armstrong at Fayal.
September, when three British cruisers entered the harbor, and sent
four boats to cut her out. But they were driven off with heavy loss.
The Governor remonstrated with the English commander against this
flagrant violation of neutrality, but was answered that the privateer
must be destroyed, and if she were protected he would bombard the
town. At midnight, fourteen launches, each containing fifty men,
were sent against her. She opened on them with murderous effect,
and when two or three of them succeeded in getting alongside, a
hand-to-hand conflict ensued, which left scarcely a man in them alive.
1814.] OPPOSITION TO THE WAR. 225
Next morning, one of the cruisers engaged the privateer, but was
soon obliged to haul off for repairs. Captain Reid, seeing Destruction
that the ultimate destruction of his vessel was certain, de- General
stroyed her himself, and went ashore with his men. Only Armstrong-
two of his crew had been killed, and seven wounded, while the ascer
tained loss of the British was a hundred and twenty killed, and ninety
wounded. The English commander had the effrontery to demand
that the authorities deliver to him as prisoners the gallant crew
whom he had failed to capture. This, of course, was refused, and
Captain Reid arid his men took possession of an old convent, de
claring they would defend themselves to the last. An apology was
made to Portugal for the violation of neutrality, but the owners of
the Armstrong never obtained any indemnity.
There were other actions at sea in the course of the next few
months, which added new laurels to the American navy. Decatur,
in the President, fought the Endymion, and reduced her to a wreck,
when, three other ships coming to her aid, he was compelled to sur
render to this overwhelming force. Stewart, in the Constitution, was
more fortunate, as he captured the Cyane and the Levant. Biddle,
in the brig Hornet, fought one of the most brilliant naval battles
of the war with the Penguin, and took her. All these actions, how
ever, in the winter or spring of 1815, were after peace was declared
in December.
But naval exploits, however brilliant, only served to convince those
who from the beginning had opposed the war, that its con- opposition
duct on shore was unwise and its aim misdirected. Henry to the war-
Clay at the outset had declared that with volunteers from Kentucky
alone he could in a short time overrun Canada; but Canada, at the
opening of the winter of 1814, was as far from being a conquest of the
United States as when, in the summer of 1812, Hull had been driven
out of it and compelled to surrender. The disasters of two years on
the northern frontier had been atoned for in some degree by the
later battles on the Niagara peninsula and before Plattsburg. But
these comparatively small successes — which only showed that Amer
icans had not yet lost the faculty of fighting — did not seem to the
opponents of the war to justify so enormous an expenditure of means
and of men for a purpose that not only had failed utterly, but, they
believed, should never have been attempted ; and much less did such
successes reconcile the maritime and commercial people, especially
of New England, to a policy which was proving their ruin. To
the want of any better result on the northern borders, was added,
moreover, the loss to Massachusetts of a considerable portion of her
eastern territory, which the Administration had neglected to defend ;
VOL. IV. 15
226 WAR WITH ENGLAND. [CHAP. IX.
the humiliating reflection that the whole country had been outraged
by the capture and destruction of its capital, the mortifying spectacle
of a fugitive government, too imbecile to take proper measures for
defence, and too destitute of spirit to atone for its blunders by some
show of courage. Those who had opposed the war were not only
more than ever persuaded that it was conceived for a sinister pur
pose, but that the result showed how incompetent the Administration
was to carry it on, — equally incompetent either to continue it with
success or to end it with honor.
The feeling on the other side was not less bitter. The Federalists
The strife of were denounced as the British party. The accusation told
with terrible force upon the minds of ignorant and unre
flecting Democrats, and was used, therefore, without scruple for years
by those who knew that sympathy with Great Britain, at that period,
only meant abhorrence of that monstrous military despotism with
which England was in deadly encounter. The charge of British
sympathy and of a wish to be reannexed to the Crown, carried with
it, of course, a charge of a purpose to dissolve the Union. And en
mity to the Union was now, for the first time, looked upon as a crime,
because of this supposed ulterior object.
A separation of the States, up to the time of the immediate events
which led to the War of 1812, was the familiar remedy suggested for
all differences between the States. It originated in the fruitful brain
of Jefferson, who, notwithstanding his abstract love of peace, declared
that the tree of liberty must be watered with the blood of patriots
and tyrants once in twenty years,1 — who was opposed to the adop
tion of the Constitution, who meant by the Virginia and Kentucky
Resolutions of 1798 to provide for its nullification, and to secure
•the right of a dissolution of the Union whenever it should seem
good to any single State. It was a threat always on the lips of
Democratic orators, whenever any new step was proposed, or any
new measure carried by the Federalists, to consolidate and strengthen
the Government of the Union ; and the menace was as promptly
resorted to by the Federalists when they in their turn saw, or thought
they saw, a determination on the part of one portion of the States
to encroach upon another. The suggestion, made indifferently by
either party, was more or less serious, according to the seriousness of
the occasion that called it forth ; but that it was a perfectly proper
and legitimate one to make, was never questioned till party cunning
1 " God forbid we should ever be twenty years without such a [Shays] rebellion
What signify a few lives lost in a century or two? The tree of liberty must be refreshed
from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants. It is its natural manure." — Jef
ferson's Works, vol. ii., p. 267.
1814.] THE REMEDY OF DISUNION. 227
managed to confuse a proposition of disunion with a design to betray
popular government by the restoration of colonial dependence upon
England. That there was never the slightest truth in this accusa
tion, may be asserted with entire confidence.
It should be remembered that the serious question in the minds of
the wisest of American statesmen, at the end of the last century, was,
whether a popular government wras not a chimera. When, after a
few years' trial, it was concluded that such a government might be
possible under favorable circumstances, it was next doiibted whether a
republic resting upon a union between the slave and free States could
be permanent, — if, indeed, such a government could be called a
republic. Very few years passed away before such men as Alexan
der Hamilton, Gouverneur Morris, Timothy Pickering, Rufus King,
Josiah Quincy, George Cabot, and other distinguished statesmen of
the time, earnestly and frankly discussed the character of such a
union, and its evident failure as a just and rational form of govern
ment. Some of them were eager to abandon the attempt to reconcile
the irreconcilable ; others, with that timidity and hesitation which
have been so marked a characteristic of American politics from the
beginning, preferred rather to temporize, and postpone, and compro
mise, — to do anything rather than face an evil to-day, if it could be
put off till to-morrow. Naturally, this want of boldness provoked
and invited aggression from those with whom audacity had to do
service for right and justice. Merely to denounce the Federalists as
disunion ists was, by itself, a feeble accusation ; for, if they were dis-
unionists simply because it was plain to their minds that there could
be no just and equal commingling between mediaeval and modern
civilization, so their accusers were equally disunionists when they
feared that the supremacy which the slaveholding representation in
the Government gave them was threatened by the progress and the
power of a free people. But when disunion was made to seem a
crime against republicanism, by the charge that it was only the first
step to a restoration of monarchy, an appeal was made to the passions
of the people, which was overwhelming. Monarchy was known and
hated ; slaveholding despotism was an abstract dread, which faded
away in the presence of a possible, immediate, and known evil.
The formation of a Northern Confederacy was undoubtedly consid
ered by some of the wisest and the best of the Federal leaders as not
merely possible, but desirable. But, it should not be lost sight of,
this was only as a means to an end ; it was disunion for the sake of- a
more perfect union; the creation of an independent Northern Con
federacy, which the weaker Southern States, in self-defenc^, would
be compelled to join on terms of reconstruction which would secure
228 WAR WITH ENGLAND. [CHAP. IX.
equality of representation, and give the greater weight to liberty, and
not to slavery. It was the misfortune of the Federal party that un
scrupulous opponents had the opportunity to invent evidence to show
that the desire to create such a Confederacy covered a design to
make it a part of the British Empire. Mr. Madison estgerly seized
upon a pretext of this sort not long before the declaration of war
in 1812, partly to strengthen his own party, but mainly to heap ob
loquy upon the opponents of this war.
An adventurer of the name of John Henry appeared at Washing
ton, with a marvellous tale of a conspiracy by which New
England was to be detached from the United States and re
stored to the British Crown. This man — an Englishman by birth.,
but married to a respectable American lady, and familiar with Amer
ican affairs — had persuaded the Governor of Canada, in 1809, to
send him as a political spy to Boston, believing that he would find
there the materials for organizing a plot — if it did not already exist
— for a revolution in favor of England. The papers laid by him,
three years later, before the President, by the President laid before
Congress, and afterward published, proved conclusively that the man
was of that vulgar class of knaves, known in the detective slang of
our day as " confidence-men." He was not the accredited agent of
the British Government ; he had discovered nothing ; he had nothing
to relate but what he might have heard at any time in the common
talk of men in the streets of New York, or Philadelphia, or Boston,
or even Washington, or might have read in any Federal news
paper ; nothing to reveal that was not quite as well known to Mr.
Madison as to himself, of common Federal opinion ; not a single item
of evidence, whether hearsay or confidential, to bring against any in
dividual of any complicity in any plot; nor any shadow of proof that
any plot existed either in England or America.
In the interval between his visit to Boston and his appearance at
Washington, Henry had been to England, and presented a claim for
services. It may be that he originally proposed only to persuade the
Ministry that he had acquired some valuable and important informa
tion in New England, for which he deserved a large reward ; and his
want of success there may have suggested the more promising scheme
of pandering to the party purposes of Mr. Madison and his friends.
At any rate, the English Ministry repudiated him and his pretended
revelations ; and when it was clear that nothing was to be gained in
that quarter, the adventurer appeared in Washington, where he was
eagerly welcomed by the President and his Secretary of State, Mon
roe, who imposed him upon the American people, — as he would have
imposed himself upon the English Ministry, — as one charged with
1814.] THE HENRY CONSPIRACY. 229
a marvellous tale of conspiracies, plots, and treasons. The tale itself
would have been laughed at by all right-minded men for its evident
and absolute failure to fulfil its promise, but for the pretence that
it covered a design of Great Britain to recover some of her lost colo
nies. Partisan passion and credulity, however, were large enough
for the deglutition of anything on that subject. The Federalists, of
course, made no reply, for the case was beyond the reach of any ap
peal to argument, common sense, or common justice. The story was
told, not because he who invented it, or they who promulgated it,
could have maintained before any justice of the peace that there was
any truth in it, but because the one had hit upon an ingenious plan
to raise fifty thousand dollars, and the others were ready to pay fifty
thousand dollars for anything, true or false, that would bring odium
on the opposition party. To propagate this purely partisan calumny,
Mr. Madison paid one sixth as much as the House of Representatives
appropriated for the support of the navy at the outbreak of a war
with the strongest naval power in the world.
The influential men among the Federalists, who sincerely questioned
whether the Union had not proved a failure, and whether QUestion of
the only remedy was not a reconstruction of States on a anewUnion-
new basis, were not likely to be reconciled to the existing condition
of things by an attempt to prove that because they held to this be
lief they were therefore disloyal to a republican form of government.
Their hostility to the war and to the war-party was intensified by
antagonism so unscrupulous, and, because it was an appeal to prej
udice and passion so hard to meet. Massachusetts refused to respond
to the call for troops at the outset, on the ground that it was for
the Governor of a State, and not for the President, to decide whether
in any given case there was good and sufficient reason for calling
upon the militia ; and Connecticut, as well as Massachusetts, refused
to put the State troops under the command of United States officers.
On the second point both States were only maintaining a right re
served to the States under the Federal Constitution ; but on the first
point Massachusetts simply took her stand upon the unalienable right
of revolution, asserted in the Virginia and Kentucky Resolutions of
1798 ; for her act was clearly one of nullification.
It was a natural and easy step to the Hartford Convention, two
years afterward. The war, which had proved disastrous, and till
recently — except on the sea — uniformly disgraceful to the Ameri
can arms, had fallen with peculiar severity upon New England. Most
of her people believed that, bad as the war was, it was still more
badly conducted — that the Administration was as imbecile as it was
unprincipled. The ruin of the country, they thought and said, could
230
WAR WITH ENGLAND.
[CHAP. IX.
only be averted first by the overthrow of such an Administration as
an immediate measure of relief, and then by such radical changes in
the terms of union between the States as should secure at least the
chance of a free and virtuous government in the future.
The Convention was called by a resolution of the Massachu setts
Legislature, passed in October, 1814. Twelve delegates
The Hart- .
ford convcn- were appointed " to meet and confer with delegates from
the other New England States, or any other, upon the subject
of their public grievances and concerns .... of defence against the
enemy ; . . . . and also to take measures, if they shall think it proper,
for procuring a convention of delegates from all the United States,
in order to revise
the Constitution
thereof, and more
effectually to se
cure the support
and attachment of
all the people, by
placing all upon
the basis of fair
representation."
It was o r d e r e d
that the resolu
tion, of which this
is the essential
substance, should
be sent to the Gov
ernors of all the
States. In the let
ter written in obe
dience to that or
der, the President of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of
Representatives were careful to say that " the general objects of the
proposed conference are, first, to deliberate upon the dangers to which
the eastern section of the Union is exposed by the course of the war,
which there is too much reason to believe will thicken round them
in its progress ; and to devise, if practicable, means of security and
defence, which may be consistent with the preservation of their re
sources from total ruin, and adapted to their local situation, mutual
relations, and habits, and not repugnant to their obligations as mem
bers of the Union." This was the immediate object of the Conven
tion ; but the ulterior object — that Avhich went beyond relief from
the temporary evils of a disastrous war — was to inquire " whether
Old State House — Hartford.
1814.] THE HARTFORD CONVENTION. 231
the interests of these States demand that persevering endeavors be
used by each of them to procure such amendments to be effected in
the national Constitution, as may secure to them equal advantage,
and whether, if in their judgment this shall be deemed impracticable
under the existing provisions for amending that instrument, an ex
periment may be made without disadvantage to the nation, for ob
taining a convention from all the States in the Union, or such of
them as approve of the measure, with a view to obtain such amend
ment/' This only meant — put in briefer words — a proposition to
amend the Constitution, if possible, with the assent of all the States ;
but if that was not possible, then the formation and adoption of a
new Constitution by so many of the States as agreed upon the ne
cessity. In the last analysis, this was disunion, as the corollary of
reconstruction, — but disunion that a free and equable republican
government, a government " of the people, by the people, and for
the people, shall not perish from the earth."
This, it should not be lost sight of, was peaceful disunion for the
sake of union. For it was never doubted that a slaveholding oli
garchy, strong only by an alliance with a weak minority at the
North, would assent, by the necessity of the case, to the just demands
of a Northern majority when a refusal involved the creation of an
independent Northern confederacy. In the relative conditions of
the free and slave States, and in the clean-cut line between geograph
ical parties at that period, this calculation upon speedy Southern
submission was probably well founded. Nearly half a century was
to pass away before the slaveholding oligarchy was strong enough
to take the bold ground that the extension and perpetuation of
human slavery was the price of unioiiy The new Union, which the
Hartford conventionists aimed at only as a political policy, was then
achieved with a broader and higher purpose, but at enormous cost.
Not, however, that the North of 1814 was less in earnest than the
North of 1860 ; had the war with England continued a year or two
longer to widen the breach between the North and the South, the
War of Rebellion, perhaps, would never have been fought. The
new Union was delayed by the peace for half a century.
The Convention met on the 15th of December, and remained in
session for three weeks.1 It sat with closed doors — an unfortunate
1 The delegates were : From Massachusetts — George Cabot, William Prescott, Harri
son Gray Otis, Timothy Bigelow, Stephen Longfellow, Jr., Daniel Waldo, George Bliss,
Nathan Dane, Hodijah Baylies, Joshua Thomas, Joseph Lyman, Samuel S. Wilde. From
Rhode Island — Daniel Lyman, Samuel Ward, Benjamin Hazard, Edward Manton. From
Connecticut — Chauncey Goodrich, James Hillhouse, John Treadwell, Zephaniah Swift,
Calvin Goddard, Nathaniel Smith, Roger Minot Sherman. From New Hampshire —
Benjamin West, Mills Olcott. From Vermont — William Hall, Jr. The last three were
not appointed by their State governments, but by committees of certain towns.
232 WAR WITH ENGLAND. [CHAP. IX.
necessity, if a necessity at all. It was watched with great interest, —
on one side with hope, on the other with anxiety and apprehension.
Madison, always more than half doubtful of the policy of his own
party, was in trepidation, and Major Jesup was sent to Hartford,
ostensibly to fill up his regiment by recruiting, but in fact to watch
the Convention and send bulletins of all he could gather to the Sec
retary of State. But in truth there was nothing to fear, if any
overt act was looked for to justify the interference of either civil or
military authority. In revolutions, discussion must precede action ;
this Convention was not only met for deliberation and counsel ; it was
probably meant in some degree to stave off rash and hasty action.
There was material enough in the report which the members of the
Convention made to their constituents to serve as a basis for future
revolutionary action, should future events call for it. For abuses,
it said, "• reduced to a system, and accumulated through a course of
years," clothed in " the forms of law," enforced by an executive, and
spreading corruption everywhere, there was no "summary means of
relief " but " direct and open resistance." But only necessity could
sanction such resistance when, after full deliberation, the people
were " determined to change the Constitution." Though many be
lieved that " the time for a change is at hand," there were consider
ations which still held out a " hope of reconciling all to a course
of moderation and firmness which might avert the evil, or at least
insure consolation and success in the last resort." There might yet
be " a reformation of public opinion, resulting from dear-bought ex-
; perience, in the southern Atlantic States Tney may discard
the influence of visionary theorists, and recognize the benefits of a
practical polic}^." But " events may prove that the causes of our
calamities are deep and permanent ; " and when that shall appear, " a
separation by equitable arrangement will be preferable to an alliance
by constraint among nominal friends, but real enemies, inflamed by
mutual hatred and jealousy, and inviting, by intestine divisions, con-
/ tempt and aggression from abroad." A separation, then, was to be
the ultimate remedy, unless dangers and grievances could be averted
by measures which the report discussed at length and embodied
finally in a series of resolutions, proposing : That unconstitutional
drafts of militia should be prevented ; that the States should be em
powered to defend their own territory ; that only the free inhabitants
of a State should be counted in the apportionment of representatives
and direct taxes ; that a two-thirds vote should be required to admit
a new State, to interdict commercial intercourse, or to declare offen
sive war; that embargoes for more than sixty days should be for
bidden ; that naturalized citizens should not be eligible to federal
1814.] DEFENCE OF NEW ORLEANS.
' ^-
offices : that the President should be ineligible for a second
and should not be chosen from any State twice in succession ; and
finally, that if these ends were not attained, and peace not concluded,
another convention should be held in Boston in June.
But that convention never met. Some of the immediate causes of
discontent were removed by the sudden termination of the war, which
soon followed; and in the universal rejoicing at the return of peace
the radical evil which threatened the permanence of the Union was
for a little while lost sight of, and left to be dealt with by another
generation in another way.
The British forces, meanwhile, had taken virtual possession of the
Spanisji town of Pensacola, and used it as a station to fit out
expeditions against Mobile and New Orleans. To this place on the Gulf
they invited their savage allies, equipped them for war, and
attempted to drill them in military organization. The commander
also offered Lafitte, the so-called pirate of Barataria Bay, a captain's
commission and liberal grants of land from the territory to be con
quered, together with the less substantial boon of " the blessings of
the British Constitution," if he would assist with his fleet in the cap
ture of Mobile and New Orleans.1
With new levies of troops, raised principally in Tennessee and
Kentucky, Jackson marched southward to meet this new invasion.
In September an attack on Fort Bowyer, at Mobile, by the British,
was repulsed, with a loss to the enemy of one ship and many men.
At Pensacola they blew up and abandoned Fort Barrancas at Jack
son's approach in November, and he took possession of the city. The
next month he was at New Orleans, where he made vigorous prep
arations to defend that port, which, if taken, would give to Great
Britain possession of the mouth of the Mississippi, and, it was hoped,
the command of the western territory of the United States.2
Jackson was not in the least appalled at the magnitude and impor
tance of the work before him. He called out the militia; he ,
Jackson at
appealed to the free negroes, who enlisted in considerable ^ewOr-
° leans.
numbers ; he enrolled the convicts ; he accepted the services
of Lafitte and his followers ; he hurried Coffee with two thousand men
1 Lafitte was not strictly a pirate, but a receiver of goods captured by half piratical
privateers. When he had obtained from the British commander a full committal in black
and white, he sent the letters to Governor Claiborne, and offered his services in defending
the coast, on condition of an act of oblivion as to his past offences. A council of military
and naval officers decided that the letters were forged, and an expedition under Commo
dore Patterson broke up his establishment.
2 An officer in the expedition, after describing the Mississippi and its tributaries, wrote :
" Whatever nation, therefore, chances to possess this place, possesses in reality the com
mand of a greater extent of country than is included within the boundary-line of the
whole United States." — Gleig's Campaigns at Washington and New Orleans. The London
234
WAR WITH ENGLAND.
[CHAP. IX.
from Mobile to New Orleans ; lie inspected every rood of ground
about the city ; he made intrenchments, proclaimed martial law, in
spired the people with his own confidence, and animated them with
his own energy.
The British had captured the American gunboats in Lake Borgne,
and landed twenty- four hundred men nine miles below the city.
With about two thousand, Jackson went down to meet them. It was
late in the day — December '23 — when he reached his enemy, and
the attack was made after dark. The schooner Carolina, lying in the
Mississippi, discharged a broadside which enfiladed the British left
wing, and this was the signal for the onset. There was almost ab
solute darkness, except as the flashes of the guns lighted up one and
Jackson's Headquarters — New Orleans.
another part of the field. In a lit
tle while the two armies became
largely intermingled, and, as a participant wrote, " no man could tell
what was going forward in any quarter, except where he himself
chanced immediately to stand." After two or three hours of fight
ing, the Americans withdrew to their fortifications four miles from
the city. Each side had lost more than two hundred men.1
Hardly was this action over, when heavy reinforcements of British
troops arrived, and with them Generals Sir Edward Pakenham and
Samuel Gibbs. Pakenham was a brother-in-law of the Duke of Wel
lington, and had won distinction in the Peninsular war. He found
the army he had come to command encamped on a narrow strip of
low and level land ; on one side was a broad river where it had no
Times announced that " most active measures are pursuing for detaching from the do
minion of the enemy an important part of his territory."
1 Unofficial reports by British officers made their loss over five hundred.
1815.] DEFENCE OF NEW ORLEANS. 235
shipping, on the other a morass ; in front were fortifications, manned
by an enemy of unknown strength ; two vessels in the river annoyed
the camp day and night, and frequent frost and rain filled up the
catalogue of miseries.
Pakenham brought a few heavy guns across the Peninsula, and
with hot shot destroyed one vessel and drove the other up stream.
After a costly reconnoissance, he determined upon siege operations,
and in a single night erected bastions of hogsheads of sugar, and
mounted thirty guns. On the morning of the new year fire was
opened upon these bastions ; sugar offered small resistance to cannon-
balls, and in a little while the whole treacherous rampart crumbled
away. Jackson had used cotton bales, which, though impenetrable by
shot, were knocked out of place and set on fire. But they answered a
temporary purpose till he could construct earthworks a mile and a
half in the rear.
In the week that followed, both sides were reenforced. The British
duo- a canal across the isthmus, and drained boats through from the
o oo o
lakes to send a force against the batteries on the west bank of the
river. On Saturday, January 7, Pakenham climbed a tall pine tree
and surveyed the American lines, while at the same time Jackson,
standing on a high building, with an imperfect spy-glass in his hand,
was watching the operations of the enemy, whom he saw making lad
ders and binding up sugar-cane into fascines.
Pakenham intended to attack on both sides of the river, before
dawn of the 8th. But there was delay in the passage of the river ;
the sun rose ; the fog began to roll away, and he impatiently sent up
the signal rocket and ordered his men forward long before those on
the west side were ready. The Americans, as well as their enemy,
understood the signal, and as many fire-arms as could be laid across
the parapet were pointed down the Peninsula, while a thirty-two
pounder was loaded to the muzzle with musket-balls. The enemy
advanced in two columns, each preceded by a regiment bearing
ladders and fascines, while midway between were placed a thousand
Highlanders ready to support an attack on both wings of the Ameri
cans ; and in the rear was a strong reserve. Jackson's men were un
erring with the rifle, and the artillery was served with coolness and
precision. When the thirty-two pounder discharged its bushel of
musket-balls, the entire van of one column melted away. Both of
the pioneer regiments wavered, and there was no means of crossing
the ditch till the men could be rallied and the lines re-formed. In
the attempt to do this under a withering fire, Pakenham was killed.
General Gibbs was wounded mortally, General Keene seriously, and
Colonel Dale fell at the head of his Highland regiment. Three offi-
236 WAR WITH ENGLAND. [CHAP. IX.
cers who reached the breastwork were instantly shot, and fell into the
ditch together ; of three others who reached it at another point, two
were riddled as they mounted it, and when the third demanded the
swords of two Americans who confronted him, he was smilingly told
to look behind him. He turned, and found that the men he sup
posed to be following him had utterly vanished away. In twenty-
five minutes the action was over, and the British had lost seven
hundred killed, fourteen hundred wounded, and five hundred prison
ers, while the American loss was but seventeen. The force on the
right bank of the river had carried the American works, and were
pursuing the militia, when they were ordered to return. The British
fleet, ascending the river, failed to pass Fort St. Philip, and General
Lambert, on whom the command had devolved, disheartened at the
disasters which had befallen the enterprise, abandoned it and re
treated to his shipping.
So brilliant a campaign, with the successes at the North, under
General Brown, would certainly have given a more hopeful
start to a third year of war, had the war been continued.
But peace was concluded at Ghent on the 24th of December, a fort
night before the battle of New Orleans. The glory of the battle was
the glory of the skilful, successful defence of raw militia against
the best veteran troops of Europe, and from that there can be no de
traction. But it had no influence, either upon continuing the war or
upon ending it.
Two incidents, occurring toward the close of this campaign, illus
trated Jackson's despotic and violent temper as well as his stern,
though often narrow, sense of duty. Both became formidable weap
ons in the hands of partisan opponents when, in later years, he became
the head of a political party. After the unofficial news of peace had
reached New Orleans, and when the official announcement
o'tXsiXu " was daily expected, six militia-men, sentenced by court-ma r-
militia-men. ., PT ,• c ,iir"
tial to be shot for desertion, tour months betore, were ex
ecuted near Mobile, with Jackson's approbation. These men — one
of them a simple-minded, conscientious Baptist preacher, who had en
listed that he might be near a son of sixteen who was also in the
army — had gone home after the expiration of their three months'
service, believing that to be the full time for which they could be
legally held. One of them — a captain — was not even guilty of this
crime, if it was a crime, but was condemned on some very doubtful
evidence of having incited others to desertion. Three months' service
had been up to that time both the law and the custom, and these
men were clearly ignorant of any law that could hold them longer,
though there was a recent six months' enlistment act of Congress
1815.] GENERAL JACKSON. 237
under which, it was assumed, they had been enlisted on proclamation
of the Governor of the State. The question involved — an honest mis
understanding of the terms of enlistment — was essentially the same
as that which led to the revolt of the whole Pennsylvania line in the
War of the Revolution, which Washington settled by conciliatory
measures. But Jackson was not Washington. The stern sense of
justice in Jackson was not mollified by mercy. He saw only dis
obedience to military law, and was unmoved by the consideration
that the war was probably over, and that the service would not be
harmed by the pardon of men who had erred through ignorance.
They were all shot.
In New Orleans the General came into conflict with the civil au
thorities. The citizens were impatient of the continuance
of martial law, when there was little doubt that peace had the civil
been concluded, though the authoritative announcement had
not yet been received. The newspapers were forbidden to publish
any statement upon the subject until authorized to do so by orders
from headquarters. French citizens, who had not been backward in
the presence of real danger, sought to escape military service when
they thought it no longer necessary, by asking the protection of the
French Consul. He, and all who had taken certificates from him,
were ordered to leave the town as if they were public enemies. A
Mr. Louaillier, a member of the Legislature, distinguished for his
zeal and activity in the presence of the enemy, was arrested and im
prisoned for protesting, through the columns of a newspaper, against
the arbitrary proceedings of the commanding General. Judge Hall,
who issued a writ of habeas corpus in Louaillier's favor, was also
arrested on a charge "of abetting and exciting mutiny," imprisoned,
and then banished beyond the city limits. He, however, was of a no
less determined temper than Jackson himself ; when, a few days after,
peace was officially declared, he summoned the General before him
for contempt of court, and fined him a thousand dollars, which Jack
son had the good sense to pay without resistance, even refusing to
avail himself of some popular tumult that was raised on his behalf.
The country learned from these early incidents in his career the char
acter of the man, and they were not forgotten. Four years afterward
President Monroe thought of appointing him minister to Russia, and
asked Mr. Jefferson's advice. Jefferson's answer was — " Why, good
God ! he would breed you a quarrel before he had been there a
month ! " l
1 Diary, when Secretary of State, in Memoirs of John Quincy Adams.
Washington, from a Sketch made about 1830.
CHAPTER X.
MONROE'S ADMINISTRATION.
THE NEWS OF PEACE. — ITS EFFECT UPON THE HARTFORD MOVEMENT. — CHARACTER
OF THE TREATY OF GHENT. — RESULTS OF THE WAR. — THE ALGERINE WAR. —
CONDITION OF THE UNITED STATES. — FINANCIAL QUESTIONS. — EFFECT OF THE
TARIFF UPON NEW ENGLAND CITIES. — CHARACTER OF MADISON. — ELECTION OF
MONROE. — THE FIRST SEMINOLE WAR. — REASONS FOR ANNEXING FLORIDA. —
THE AFFAIR AT AMELIA ISLAND. — JACKSON'S CAMPAIGN. — His EXECUTION OF
PRISONERS. — His DISPUTE WITH MONROE. — CESSION OF FLORIDA.
The news
of peace.
THE enthusiasm and joy at the news of peace were absolutely hila
rious among all classes of the people. There was no waiting
to know the terms on which it had been concluded ; it was
enough to know that, honorable or dishonorable, advantageous or dis
advantageous, just or unjust, wise or foolish, terms of some kind had
been agreed upon, and the .war was over. In truth, it was better to
rejoice first and reflect afterwards. Federalists and Democrats could
exult that there was war no more ; middle-aged gentlemen of both
parties, eminent for the grave dignity and quiet respectability of their
lives, could mount the tables at public dinners and dance together in
white-top boots, among the empty bottles, in token of amity and fra
ternity. There was time enough for sober after-thought when the
1815.] THE NEWS OF PEACE. 239
Government should see fit to give more definite intelligence. In the
mean while both parties had reason enough for rejoicing : one, that it
was extricated from a war which had proved to be as unwise and as
useless as its opponents had declared at the outset it would be ; the
other, that their wisdom was justified, and the prophet's reward was
theirs; and both were glad to agree to disagree no longer. The
news from Ghent met the delegates from the Hartford Convention at
Washington. It was not a time to present their report of
Ettect upon
grievances, and they made no sign. It was thoroughly Amer- the iiartfoni
J movement.
ican to seize the opportune moment to silence the solemn
appeal to reason by an appeal to the national love of humor and the
national love of forgetting anything serious. Otis and his companions
were advertised by the Democrats as strayed or stolen,1 and a suit
able reward offered for their return to their anxious friends in Boston.
The men who could have bravely faced a gibbet, trembled and fled
before a joke.
The real absurdity of the situation, nevertheless, attaches to their
opponents. The war had been carried on upon a single issue. The
Orders in Council had been revoked almost at the outbreak of hostili
ties, and Dearborn and Admiral Warren had even agreed upon a
temporary armistice in the summer of 1812, which the Administration
had overruled mainly on grounds of diplomatic technicalities. This
left the impressment of seamen the sole cause of quarrel. The Com
mittee of Foreign Relations in Congress, in a report upon the war, in
January, 1813, said : " The impressment of our. seamen being deserv
edly considered a principal cause of the war, the war ought to be
prosecuted until the cause was removed," notwithstanding the repeal
of the Orders in Council. When, early the same year, commissioners
were appointed to negotiate a peace on the proposed mediation of Rus
sia, if England should accept it, Secretary Monroe said in his instruc
tions to the Commissioners : " If this encroachment [impressment] of
Great Britain is not provided against, the United States have ap
pealed to arms in vain. If your efforts to accomplish it should fail,
1 ADVERTISEMENT. — MISSING. — Three well-looking, responsible men, who appeared
to be travelling towards Washington, disappeared suddenly from Gadsby's Hotel in Balti
more on Monday evening last, and have not since been heard of. They were observed to
be very melancholick on hearing the news of peace, and one of them was heard to say, with
a great sigh, " Poor Caleb Strong ! " [Federal Governor of Massachusetts.] They took
with them their saddlebags, so that no apprehension is entertained of their having any
intention to make away with themselves. Whoever will give any information to the Hart
ford Convention of the fate of these unfortunate and tristful gentlemen by letter (post-paid)
will confer a favor upon humanity. The newspapers, particularly the Federal newspapers,
are requested to publish this advertisement in a conspicuous place, and send in their bills
to the Hartford Convention. — P. S. One of the gentlemen was called Titus Oates [Har
rison Gray Otis] or some such name. — National Advocate, February, 1815.
240 MONROE'S ADMINISTRATION. [CHAP. X.
.... you will return home immediately." It was next proposed
to open negotiations at Gotteiiburg, and the Secretary wrote again
in the same tone : " This degrading practice must cease ;
toCommis- our flag must protect the crew, or the United States cannot
consider themselves an independent nation." The changed
accent of the same voice, a few months later, is in ludicrous contrast
with the eagle-scream of these war-cries. Early the next year — in
February — Monroe wrote to the same Commissioners that " should
peace be made in Europe, as the practical evil of which we complain
in regard to impressment would cease, it is presumed the British Gov
ernment would have less objection to a stipulation to forbear that
practice for a specified term, than it would have, should the war con
tinue. In concluding a peace .... it is important to the United
States to obtain such a stipulation." The mind of the Secretary
changed like the colors of the chameleon. Three months later he
wrote to the Commissioners : " You may concur in an article stipu
lating that the subject of impressment .... be referred to separ
ate negotiation." And two days after ordering that concession the
still more significant instructions were sent, to " omit any stipula
tion on the subject of impressment, if found indispensably neces
sary to terminate it" [the war]. Thus, "the principal cause of
the war," as the Democratic Congressional committee declared it
to be in 1813, — the grievance which by war alone could be set
tled, if the United States, as Secretary Monroe said in 1814, were
to "consider themselves an independent nation," — was deliberately
abandoned.
The American Commissioners at Ghent 1 implicitly, in the letter
The treaty an(l m tne spirit, obeyed their instructions. In the course
of Ghent. Q£ ^ne negotiations with the English Commissioners they de
clared that " the causes of the war having disappeared by the mari
time pacification of Europe, the Government of the United States does
not desire to continue it in defence of abstract principles " — mean
ing by abstract principles the impressment of American seamen —
" which have, for the present, ceased to have any practical effect."
Accordingly, in the treaty then and there made, the subject of im
pressment was not even alluded to. The cost of the war in human
life was thirty thousand men ; in money expended, and represented by
a national debt, one hundred million dollars ; the loss in public and
private wealth, in the paralysis of industry and prosperity, was be
yond any estimate. In the official volume of Treaties and Conven
tions, published by the United States, the subject of the Treaty of
1 The American Commissioners were : John Quiucy Adams, James A. Bayard, Henry
Clay, Jonathan Russell, and Albert Gallatiu.
s
1815.] THE TREATY OF GHENT. 241
Ghent is indexed as "• Peace, Boundary, Slave-trade." Peace it cer
tainly secured ; the question of boundaries was left to be further con
sidered by commissioners to be subsequently appointed, and to vex
both governments for another thirty years ; on the abolition of the
slave-trade, by an empty generality it was agreed that u both the con
tracting parties shall use their best endeavors to accomplish so desir
able an object." The treaty in fact was not so good as that con
cluded by Jay in 1794, for negotiating which he was burned in effigy
in the streets of New York; nor was it so favorable to the United
States as that sent home in 1806 by Monroe and Pinckney, which
Jefferson refused to submit to the Senate. It concluded peace, and
it concluded nothing else.
The negotiations were prolonged for five months. Mr. Adams in
his diary frequently alludes to the insolent and supercilious tone as
sumed by the English towards the American Commissioners, and often
predicts, in the earlier stages of the discussions, that they could last
only a few days longer, and must end in disagreement. But both
parties were sincerely desirous of peace, and it was easy to agree upon
that when at last it was determined that all questions between the
two nations should be left essentially where they were when the war
began.1 Six months afterwards, however, a commercial convention
was entered into, which provided for reciprocity of trade between the
two countries, but otherwise was, for the most part, a repetition of the
Jay Treaty. In one essential particular, however, it differed from the
Jay Treaty. One strong, if not the strongest, objection urged against
that treaty was, that it failed to settle the question of the payment for
slaves who had escaped to the British at the time of the Revolution.
Now Mr. Monroe, though he could abandon the rights of Northern
sailors, on whose behalf, it was pretended, the war was begun, did not
forget the interests of the slaveholders. " The negroes taken from
the Southern States,'' - — he instructed the Commissioners at Ghent, —
*' should be returned to their owners, or paid for at their full value."
This was insisted upon by the Commissioners, and, it was thought,
secured. The English commanders of vessels, however, when the ren
dition of the slaves was demanded, would only return those who had
been taken prisoners, refusing to surrender those who had sought pro
tection on board their ships. On such a point the Government w;is
unyielding. The demand was insisted upon for a dozen years with
unbending pertinacity, till at length, Russia construing the treaty in |
favor of the United States, England paid about twelve hundred thou-
1 Mr. Clay said, in a conference of the American Commissioners the dav before the final
agreement, that " We should make a damned bad Treaty, and he did not know whether
he would sign it or not." — Diary in the Memoirs of John Quincy Adams.
VOL. IV- 10
242 MOXROE'S ADMINISTRATION. [CHAP. X.
sand dollars to remunerate the slaveholders, principal and interest,
for their loss in slaves.
The end of the war was as inconclusive as the beginning was un-
Effectof wise, and its conduct imbecile. To all this it is both an
inefficient and illogical answer that nevertheless out of so
much that was evil there came some good. Whatever there was of
good, it had been the policy of the Federalists to strive for, as it had
been the policy of the other party to oppose, through the sixteen
years of the administrations of Jefferson and Madison. The two par
ties had not changed places ; but the Federal party — partly through
their own mismanagement, partly through the essential unity of a
" solid South," with a Northern minority — was overcome ; while
the Democratic party was forced by the progress of events, and
their irresistible pressure — the war among them — first, to suc-
•cumb to, and then to accept and maintain as their own, the political
ideas and principles they had so long resisted, From the close of
the war of the Revolution to the close of the second war with Eng
land, the Federalists maintained that the United States, to be re
spectable and respected, must be a strong government, literally one
and indivisible, not merely a confederation of thirteen independent
States ; — a nation free from the entanglement of European politics,
with a navy strong enough to maintain its neutrality, to protect its
foreign commerce, and defend its rights upon the sea. Great revo
lutions have not been often successful without a second struggle ;
and it was, perhaps, absolutely inevitable that there should be a
second war with England, not merely to wipe out old grudges, but
that the people of the United States should be brought to under-
•stand that their independence was not achieved till they were united
as one nation.
It did not hurt England so far as her desperate struggle with
Napoleon was concerned, but the war, nevertheless, had its lesson for
her also as well as for her opponent. Her supremacy as a naval
power was no longer unquestioned. Though her navy was the largest
in the world, she could boast no longer that she ruled the seas, when
.a young nation, that three years before was almost without any navy
.at all, could meet her on equal terms, and beat her in better seaman
ship and in the better fighting qualities of captains and men. It
was a humiliation to all England, — not to be rejoiced in on that
account, though even in that not altogether unpleasing to the un-
regenerate mind, — and a thing to be proud of, inasmuch as it secured
to the United States that respect which is always accorded to the
strong. The Democrats exulted that this was the result of their
\var; the Federalists — while not reluctant to remind their opponents
1815.]
WAR WITH ALGIERS.
243
that they for years had done their best to make that impossible of
which they now boasted — rejoiced in that naval prowess the possibil
ity of which they had never doubted. Though no acknowledgment
was asked for, and none given, that the visitation of American ships
and the impressment of American seamen were national outrages ;
and though no stipulation was required, nor any offered, that hence
forth they should cease forever, they were not likely to occur again,
now it was seen with how much vigor they were sure to be resented.
Decatur and the D
Before the country could settle down into absolute quietude there
was one other question of foreign hostilities to be disposed of, which
related, in some degree, to the late war. The Dey of Algiers, dissat
isfied with the measure of the usual tribute, had declared war against
the United States, and renewed his depredations upon Amer- w.u. with
ican commerce. In the spring of l<Slf), Decatur was sent Al°u'rs-
with a squadron of nine vessels to the Mediterranean. In June he
fell in with an Algerine frigate and a brig of twenty-two guns, and
244 MONROE'S ADMINISTRATION. [CHAP. X.
captured botli within a clay or two of each other. A few days after
ward his whole squadron anchored in the harbor of Algiers, and
Decatur demanded the immediate negotiation of a treaty. This was
acceded to, and the negotiation was carried on on the quarter-deck
of his own ship. The Dey begged hard that there might be a con
tinuation of tribute, if only a little powder, for form's sake ; for the
humiliating deference paid to these piratical principalities, he well
knew, if boldly broken by one nation would no longer be submitted
to by the rest. "If you insist upon receiving powder as tribute,"
Decatur replied to the Dey's demand, " you must expect to receive
balls with it," — a threat to do that which, fourteen years before,
Bainbridge wished might be done, — the payment of tribute from the
mouths of cannon. The threat was enough, and a treaty was con
cluded with Algiers, to be followed by others with Tunis and Trip
oli ; and these put an end to that remarkable submission of civilized
nations to semi-barbarous states, which had existed so long and with
so little reason.
The country was left in a deplorable financial condition as a result
condition °f the war, and to provide some remedy for this was the
iVuea nrst work of the Administration. The banks, excepting
those in Boston, had suspended specie payments ; the paper
currency was at a large discount, with the consequent derangement
of the business of the country ; foreign commerce had been almost
suspended, and the people were burdened with taxation. A. J. Dal
las, the Secretary of the Treasury, proposed as a measure of relief
for the universal distress, that a new national bank should be char
tered, with a larger capital and enlarged powers, and that the tariff
Financial should be readjusted. This plan was adopted ; a bank was
chartered for one and twenty years, with a capital of
),000,000, a portion of the stock to be owned by the Government,
and to be represented in the management by live government direc
tors in a board of twenty-five. By the tariff he recommended, the
average duties on imports amounted almost to a prohibition, and were
avowedly intended as an encouragement and protection to American
manufactures.
This policy was sustained by the Democratic, or Southern, party,
conflicting an(l opposed by the Federalists, especially of New England.
It was not so much a question of abstract political economy
that divided the parties, as one of sectional interest. The capital of
New England was invested in commerce, and she deprecated the
adoption of a policy which in repulsing articles of foreign production
would ruin the carrying trade and compel those engaged in it to find
a new use for their capital. The South, on the other hand, were
measures.
1816.]
FINANCIAL QUESTIONS.
245
anxious to create a home market for their great staple, cotton, —
against which there was a discriminating duty in England, — and to
encourage the domestic manufacture of those coarse fabrics indispen
sable in a cotton-growing and slave-holding region, which were now
imported and made of India cotton. The question really was one of
slave labor against free labor, though it was wrapped up in the eu
phemism of protec
tion to American
industry — the free
trade party being
led by Daniel Web
ster, of Massachu
setts, and the tariff
party by John C.
Calhoun, of South
Carolina. So im
mediate was the ef
fect of this policy,
that the value of the
..imports fell off the
first year about
thirty-two per cent,
although the in
crease the first year
of peace, — .by
which the renewed
prosperity of the
country was measured, — had been about nine hundred per cent.
Nor was this the whole of the price which Northern commerce had
to pay, that cotton might have a wider market at home by the in
crease of domestic manufactures. In the adjustment of cap-
• Effect upon
ital and trade to an enforced industrial policy, the country New Eng-
*" land cities.
was compelled to pass through a commercial crisis of great
severity, and a paralysis fell upon the flourishing seaports of New
England, from Portsmouth to Long Island Sound, from which they
never recovered. Newburyport, Salem, Plymouth, New London,
Newport, and other places which had been centres of an important
and lucrative foreign commerce, sank into insignificance, or, if they
recovered some measure of prosperity, acquired it in other ways. It
is true, Manchester, Lowell, Lawrence, Fall River, Pawtucket, Wa-
terbury, and many other places became, in the course of years, the
seats of great manufacturing enterprise and wealth, but they owe
their existence to the indomitable energy and industry of a people
The Old United States Bank, Phila
246 MONROE'S ADMINISTRATION. [CHAP. X.
which no legislative interference with the natural laws could sup
press.
The ensuing Presidential contest was decided by the result of the
war. Not only was the anti-war party annihilated, but power re-
Poiiticai mained in the almost undisputed possession of that faction
power. which had taken it from the Federalists sixteen years before,
and had held it ever since. As Madison had succeeded Jefferson, so
it was determined that Monroe should succeed Madison. The sov
ereignty of the Union was in the South, and the South was Virginia.
The Northern wing of the party was strong enough as an ally to
make it all-powerful ; it was not strong enough to assert any ascen
dency of its own. It would have made a Northern man President if
it could, and its choice would have fallen upon Daniel I). Tompkins
of New York. Tompkins was the " war-Governor " of that period.
By his energy, executive ability, and personal pecuniary sacrifices,
he had done as much, perhaps more, than the Administration itself,
in conducting the war on the borders of Canada. His qualifications
for the chief magistracy were far superior to those of Monroe, AV!IO,
though an amiable man, had little strength of character, and little apti
tude for affairs of moment ; was more anxious for personal popularity
than the independence and dignity of his administration ; tenacious
upon petty questions of Presidential etiquette, which he was more
fitted by nature to control than affairs of state. But Monroe was a
Virginian, devoted to the slave-power, while Tompkins, the war-Gov
ernor of New York, was disqualified by Northern birth.
Nominations for the Presidency and Vice-presidency were at that
Kieotion of tmie niade in a Congressional caucus, and, — as under the
equally pernicious system of national conventions now in use,
— the only share the people had in filling those high offices was in go
ing through the formality of voting for the choice of the party leaders.
The vote in the Electoral College for Monroe as President, and for
Tompkins as Vice-president, — for the Northern Democrats were per
mitted to have that honorary, but otherwise insignificant and power
less office, — was one hundred and eighty-three, while only thirty-four
were given to the opposing Federal candidate^ Rufus King.
The tranquillity of Monroe's administration was soon seriously
threatened by the renewal of trouble with the Southern Indians ; or,
rather, such measures were taken by General Jackson in dealing
with the hostile movements of a handful of savages, that grave and
Th.- first scm- well-founded apprehensions were felt that the country was
inoiewar. about to be forced into a war with both Spain and Fng-
land. The origin of the difficulty was twofold : first, the injustice
which has always marked the treatment of Indian tribes whose lands
1816.]
THE FIRST SEMINOLE WAR.
247
were coveted by the whites ; and secondly, the revival of the old
grievance, that Florida was a refuge for the fugitive slaves of Georgia
and South Carolina. The treaty made at Fort Jackson at the end of
the campaign of 1814, by which the Creeks were compelled to sur
render a large portion of their territory in Georgia and Alabama,
was repudiated by many of them. They resented any encroachment
upon those lands, and it was easy to kindle that resentment into open
hostility. Naturally they made common cause with the Seminoles of
Florida ; and they, ever since their
expulsion from Georgia in the co
lonial wars of the previous cen
tury, had been objects of hostility
to the planters of that State. The
greed of land and the greed of
slaves combined were the most pow
erful incentives to an Indian war.
The Seminoles had never with
held a welcome to the Georgia
negro who preferred their wild
freedom to the lash of an over
seer on a cotton or rice plantation.
The Georgians could never forget
that the grandchildren of their
grandfathers' fugitive slaves were
roaming about the Everglades of Florida, mere unproductive capital,
and that to these there were constant additions of other ignorant
creatures who stupidly abandoned the lovely and ameliorating in
fluences of the Christianity and civilization of the plantation, for life
among the Seminoles. The American Revolution was a mockery,
and republicanism a snare, if this state of things was to continue.
The first duty of the Federal—Government, the Georgians thought,
was to catch all these runaway negroes ; and the Federal Government
only needed to be reminded of its duty. The first treaty made by
the United States, in 1790, after the adoption of the Constitution,
was one with the Creeks for the return of fugitive slaves : and to give
the form of legality to any steps that might be taken for their recla
mation, it was assumed that the Seminoles were a party to the treaty,
though not a man of that tribe had anything to do with the nego
tiation. But the Government of the United States has always been
remarkable for the ingenuous simplicity of its devices to accomplish
its ends where slavery was concerned. So long as there were Semi
noles in Florida, and so long as Florida belonged to Spain, just so
long would the negroes of Georgia find an asylum in Florida with
Daniel D. Tompkins
248 MONROE'S ADMINISTRATION. [CHAP. X.
the Seminoles. If at any time it should be desirable to declare war
against these Indians, and prudent to invade the Spanish province
in pursuit of them, what could be more convenient than to have
somewhere about the Secretary of State's office a violated Seminole
treaty ?
A war with the Indians of Florida, therefore, was always literally
and emphatically a slave-hunt. A reclamation for fugitives was
always repulsed by the Seminoles and the Spaniards, and, as they
could be redeemed in no other way, Georgia was always urging the
Federal Government to war. It was, of course, desirable for other
reasons, that Florida should become a part of the United States ;
but the paramount reason for all movements against either the Semi
noles or Florida, was the determination to capture negroes who had
been running away, for several generations, and to deprive others,
who might escape in future, of a place of refuge. This was, of course,
perfectly natural on the part of the Georgia slaveholders ; the point
to be observed is, the recognition, almost unquestioned, of the assump
tion that the protection of slavery was the great duty of the Federal
Government, and that it was never to be permitted to fall into the
hands of those who did not believe this to be its chief end and aim.
In 1811 a secret act was passed, authorizing the seizure of
Seizure of 7 *- "•
Amelia Florida, and a General Mathews of Georgia took possession
of Amelia Island. Spain remonstrated, and Madison dis
avowed the act of Mathews, and recalled him, probably because the
foreign relations of the Government were too critical at that mo
ment to admit of any other course. But the project was only post
poned, not abandoned.
After the departure of the British army, in 1814, Colonel Nichols
" Negro remained in Florida, induced to do so, apparently, from sym
pathy with the Indians. He built a fort for them on the
Appalachicola, not far above its mouth, and within the boundaries of
Florida, supplying it with large quantities of arms and ammunition.
On his return to England, — taking with him some of the chiefs with
whom he had pretended to negotiate a treaty on behalf of the English
Government, but without the slightest authority, — he left the fort
in the hands of the Seminoles. From their possession it soon passed
into that of the negro refugees, and for a year or more General Ed
mund P. Gaines, who was in command on that frontier, was unwearied
in his complaints to the Government at Washington of the dangerous
character of this "Negro Fort." It is quite likely that the complaint
was well founded ; for such a post outside of the boundaries of the
United States was so convenient, and apparently so safe a refuge for
fugitive slaves as to be a serious threat to the quiet possession of
1816.] INVASION OF FLORIDA. 249
slave property. Gaines's complaints were listened to by the Admin
istration, and the subject was referred to General Jackson. There
was no doubt on his part as to what should be done. He wrote with
entire frankness to Gaines, that the fort " ought to be blown up, re
gardless of the ground on which it stands," — in the territory of a
friendly power, — and "• the stolen negroes and property returned to
their rightful owners."
This was the real reason for an advance upon the fort by a de
tachment under Colonel Duncan L. Clinch, in July, 1816. The pre
text was, that a fleet of boats, then coming up the river from New
Orleans with supplies for the American Fort Scott, might be inter
rupted in its progress. Clinch's advance, with an evidently hostile
purpose, would, of course, provoke such an interruption, whether it
had been previously intended or not. A boat's crew was fired upon
as the fleet approached.
The gunboats, under Sailing-master Loomis, then warped up stream
and made an attack. It did not last long. A red-hot shot from the
fleet entered the magazine of the fort, where were stored nearly eight
hundred barrels of gunpowder. The explosion that instantly fol
lowed laid the fort in ruins, killed immediately two hundred and
seventy of the three hundred and thirty-four inmates , — negroes and
Indians, men, women, and children ; and of the sixty-four left alive,
all were so grievously wounded that most of them soon died. Of the
few survivors, an Indian chief, and Garcon the negro commander,
were given to some friendly Seminoles in Clinch's detachment, to be
put to death after the Indian manner. This was in retaliation of the
death by torture of one of Loomis's men, who had been taken pris
oner a few days before.
Neither Seminoles nor negroes needed other warning or other in
centive to the most desperate hostility than this signal chastisement.
A year passed, however, before Gaines found another pretext for
attack. Now and then settlers were murdered and settlements robbed
by the Indians; but, said King Hatchy, "while one American has
been justly killed, while in the act of stealing cattle, more than four
Indians have been murdered, while hunting, by these lawless free
booters." He probably spoke the truth. Gaines accused him of re
ceiving " a great many of my black people among you." " I harbor
no negroes," answered the King ; and, he added. " I shall use force
to stop any armed Americans from passing my lands or my towns."
At Fowltown, on Flint River, the Indians erected the war-pole, and
danced the war-dance around it. The chief warned Colonel Fowltown
Twiggs, in command at Fort Scott, not to cross the Flint destr°yed
River. " That land is mine." he said. " I am directed by the pow-
250
MONROE'S ADMINISTRATION.
[CHAP. X.
ers above and the powers below to protect it. I shall do so." Gaines
arrived at Fort Scott with a reinforcement of regular troops, and
summoned the chief before him. He refused to obey. Twiggs
marched upon the town, and killed some of the people. Gaines,
soon after, burned the village to the ground.
For this act there came swift vengeance. A few days later the
Seminoles lay in ambush on the river near Fort Scott, surprised a
passing boat containing forty soldiers under Lieutenant Scott, besides
some women and children, and — except four of the men, who swam
Indians in Ambush.
to the opposite bank, and one of the women, who was held as a pris
oner by a chief — killed them all.
Affairs were now ripe for the appointment of Jackson to bring this
border war to a conclusion. Not that there was any want of soldierly
ability in Gaines, nor any lack of earnestness in driving Indians from
the lands they claimed as their own, or in running down the slaves
who had escaped from their masters. But he was ordered upon
another service.
Amelia Island, at the mouth of St. Mary's River, on the coast of
Florida, had long been the resort of lawless men, whence
goods were smuggled to the mainland, where fugitive slaves
were supposed to find a refuge, and slaves imported from Africa were
landed. As the foreign slave-trade was prohibited by law, its exist-
Amelia
Island.
1816.] AMELIA ISLAND. 251
ence — if it did exist to any extent — on Amelia Island was a spe
cious ground of complaint against its people. But it was only a
hollow pretence of national virtue ; for negroes were imported from
Africa at the rate of from ten to twenty thousand a year long after 1
that trade was declared illegal ; no serious effort was ever made by
the Federal Government to put a stop to it, and Southern members
of Congress openly defied any attempt to enforce the law. If the
island, therefore, was of any essential aid to that traffic, Georgia and
South Carolina would have insisted that it be let alone. There were
other and more imperative reasons for its seizure.
It was probable that Florida might soon be transferred by Spain to
the United States, provided the spirit of revolution and independence, \
which was rapidly stripping Spain of all her American possessions,
should leave her Florida to transfer. It was for the interest, there
fore, of the United States to permit no outrages but her own to be
visited upon Florida. The South American revolutions had attracted
thither European adventurers of various nationalities, and some of
them at length, when the revolutionary business was dull in other
places, found their way to Amelia Island. Some of them bore South
American and Mexican commissions, and, with that island as a ful
crum, Florida was to be shot, as a star of lesser magnitude, into the
constellation of new republics. Sir Gregor McGregor, a Scotchman,
whose lieutenant was one Woodbine, an English officer, declared that
he meant to hand over the province, when its independence should
be achieved, to the United States. Nobody seems to have believed
him ; but his intentions were of small consequence, for he was driven
252 MONROE'S ADMINISTRATION. [CHAP. X.
off by an Englishman named Hubbard. But next came a Commodore
Aury, an associate of McGregor, and he drove off Hubbard. The
Administration at Washington now thought it time to interfere ; for
I these adventurers were too strong for the Spanish authorities of
Florida to cope with, and if the province was to be acquired by
treaty, its safety must be insured against the designs of the South
American revolutionists. To aid in carrying out this policy, Gaines
was sent to the coast, though, before he arrived, Aury had surren
dered to Commodore Henley.
A few days before Jackson received orders from the Secretary of
War, Calhoun, to take command of the expedition against
Jackson's i ct • i i /i • i
opinions on the bemiiioles, the General wrote a private letter to the
President, in which he plainly set forth the plan which he
thought should be adopted in conducting the campaign. The letter
was written as a commentary upon the orders sent to Gaines, —
which Jackson had read, — authorizing him to cross the frontier in
pursuit of the Indians, " but to halt and report to the department in
case the Indians should shelter themselves under a Spanish fort."
" Permit me to suggest," wrote Jackson, ki the catastrophe that might
arise by General Gaines's compliance with the last clause of your
order." Should Gaines, he said, defeat the Indians, and they should
take refuge with the Spaniards at Pensacola or St. Augustine, and he
should then halt there for further orders from Washington, the dis
contented militia would desert him, leaving him only the regulars
with which to defend his position. Then the Indians, reenforced by
the Spaniards, perhaps by Woodbine's partisans, or by Aury, with a
force from Amelia Island, might attack Gaines, and the result would
be probably " defeat and massacre."
To guard against this possible catastrophe consequent upon certain
improbable contingencies, — that is, the desertion of the militia, and
Gaines's neglect to retreat, as an act of common prudence, when thus
abandoned ; the renewal of hostilities by the beaten Indians ; the in
itiation of war with the United States by the Spaniards ; an alliance
with Woodbine or Aiiry, who had invaded Florida that they might
wrest it from Spain, — to guard against the " defeat and massacre "
which was to follow this concatenation of events, Jackson declared
that " the arms of the United States must be carried to any point
within the limits of East Florida where an enemy is permitted and
protected." This would be to leave it to the discretion of a young
general to involve the country in a war with Spain, perhaps with other
powers, without waiting for consultation with the Government at
Washington, without authority from the President, without regard to
that provision of the Constitution which restricts the right to declare
war to Congress alone.
1816.] JACKSON'S CAMPAIGN IN FLORIDA 253
The great soldier was always more frank than clear-headed. All
East Florida, he said, ought to be seized simultaneously with the
seizure of Amelia Island, — forgetting, or, if not forgetting, indiffer
ent to the fact that Amelia Island was to be taken, not because it was
a part of East Florida, but because the authorities of that province
were not strong enough to hold the island against the revolutionary
adventurers, who were to be driven out of it by a friendly force,
partly that it might be restored to Spain. But he was clear enough
as to his own motives, declaring that the province should be " held
as an indemnity for the outrages of Spain upon the property of our
citizens." And those outrages were — what? Solely that the fugi
tive slaves of Georgia were free when they crossed the border-line of
Florida. He was clear, also, in this: that this act of war against Spain
might involve us in " a war with Great Britain or some of the Con
tinental powers combined with Spain." His method of avoiding this
difficulty was perfectly characteristic. " This [the seizure of Florida]
can be done without implicating the Government. Let it be signified
to me, through any channel (say Mr. J. Hhea), that the possession
of the Floridas would be desirable to the United States, and in sixty
days it will be accomplished." If, in other words, the Government
wished to outrage and rob Spain, but wanted courage to assume the
responsibility, with its probable consequences, he, Andrew Jackson,
who was not responsible to other governments, was ready to help his
own to commit an act of war without incurring the penalty, if the
Government would onlv give him a private hint.
In this letter is the plan, baldly and frankly laid down, of his cam
paign against the Seminoles. When the order to assume
111- 11 PIT ' 11 ^*S Cam"
command reached him, regardless of the direction to call upon paign m
the militia of the border States through their governors, he
raised a volunteer force among his old companions in arms in Tennes
see, who would follow him anywhere. With these and the troops left
by Gaines, he marched into Florida. On the site of the Negro Fort he
built and garrisoned another, which he called Fort Gadsden, From
that point he advanced towards the Bay of St. Marks, almost with
out resistance, and easily dispersing the few Seminoles who ventured
to impede his progress. The Spanish Governor of the fort at St.
Marks was in no condition to make a defence, and Jackson, on the
plea that some of the enemy were harbored there, marched in on the
7th of April, hauled down the Spanish flag, and raised the American
in its place. An American armed vessel had arrived in the bay a
day or two before, and, by displaying English colors, had enticed
on board two well-known Seminole chiefs, the prophet Francis, and
Himollemico, who was supposed to have been the leader in the mas-
254
MONROE'S ADMINISTRATION.
[CHAP. X.
sacre of Captain Scott's party on the Appalacliicola. They were
brought on shore, and immediately hanged by Jackson's orders.
After two or three days' delay the march was resumed, a strong
garrison being left at St. Marks. The intention was to surprise and
destroy the chief Billy Bow-legs and his band at the Indian town
Suwannee, a place of resort for negro refugees. The town was a hun
dred miles distant, and Jackson was too late. Warning of his coin
ing had been received from St. Marks ; the women and children had
Capture of Indian Chiefs.
been sent to a place of safety across the river, and the men, after
some slight resistance, followed.
At St. Marks Jackson had taken prisoner, as he was about to mount
his horse to escape, one Alexander Arbnthnot, a Scotchman
Arbuthnot TTII i ^ A <• T o
and Ambris- and an Indian trader. He had a depot of goods near Su-
wannee, and had written his son to remove them to a place
of safety. By this means the Indians were warned of the advance
of the Americans. Jackson chose to look upon this man as an enemy,
and he was kept in confinement till the army, on its return march,
reached St. Marks. At Suwannee, an Englishman, Robert C. Am-
brister, an officer of the British army who had been suspended
from duty for a year for being engaged in a duel, blundered into the
camp, intending to join the Indians, and was also detained as a pris
oner. On his arrival at St. Marks, Jackson ordered both men to be
tried by a court martial, over which Gaines presided.
1816.] EXECUTION OF PRISONERS BY JACKSON. 255
Both were found guilty. Arbuthnot was sentenced to be hanged,
and Ambrister to be shot. The verdict in Ambrister's case, how
ever, was reconsidered by the court, and a sentence for the infliction
of fifty lashes and a year's imprisonment substituted for that of death.
Jackson preferred the first sentence ; or, rather, he chose to Their execu.
reject the final decision of the court, and the man was shot tlon-
by his orders. He approved the finding in the case of Arbuthnot,
and he was immediately hanged.1
Neither in the law of nations, the laws of war, the law of neces
sity, nor the laws of the United States, was there any justification
for these executions. There was hardly even the respectability of
a " Lynch " court attached to the court martial : for that wild form
of justice sometimes has the excuse of the absence of any other law
for the punishment of crime, or the aroused indignation of a com
munity refuses to restrain itself and await the slower process of law.
No such plea could be made in these cases. Neither Arbuthnot nor
Ambrister was a dangerous criminal, if they were criminals at all.
The offence of the latter was that in an idle mood he had come to
Florida from New Providence, — his uncle was the Governor of the
Bahamas, — and in the mere love of adventure had joined the In
dians, whose wrongs aroused his sympathy. Taken in arms against
the United States, though not within her territory, he was a pris
oner of war, and the rights as well as the penalties of that con
dition were his. Arbuthnot's case was far stronger even than this.
He was not a soldier, but a peaceful trader. His sympathies also
were enlisted on behalf of the Indians ; but, whatever influence he
had gained over them was exercised always to restrain them from
going to war.. There was no evidence produced before the court to
show that he had urged them to hostilities that was not either clearly
false, — as the testimony of unscrupulous rivals in trade, — or abso
lutely inconclusive ; and the proof was abundant and irrefragable of
his earnest efforts to preserve the peace. But Jackson's mind was
incapable of weighing evidence, and with him headlong credulity
and headstrong passion usurped the seat of judgment.
1 Jackson, who could shoot or hang prisoners of war without regard to the law of
nations, the laws of his country, or the laws of humanity, when a negro was taken at
Suwannee, whose acts were those of an open and dangerous enemy, could only see in him
the chattel personal who had run away. The General took to himself great credit for hav
ing restored to a lady in Georgia her fugitive slave, whom, as an able military leader, he
would have hanged without ceremony had the negro been either a white man or an Indian.
That heroic impetuosity of character, that exalted sense of duty, which his worshippers
delight in believing so completely governed all the actions of his life, at this time hid from
his sight so momentous a possibility as involving nations in war; but these great qual
ities which, it is declared, always distinguished him, always palliated his errors of judg
ment or of passion, were under the calmest and most complete control in the mollifying
presence of a thousand-dollar negro.
256 MONROE'S ADMINISTRATION. [CHAP. X.
Jackson bad reached Fort Gadsden, on his return march, when a
protest against this invasion of Spanish territory was sent him by the
seizure of Governor of Pensacola. He turned back on the instant, oc-
Pensacoia. CUpje(i Pensacola, and then took, with slight resistance, the
fort of Carrios de Barrancas, to which the Governor had fled. He
regretted afterward, in a letter to a friend, that lie had not stormed
the fortress, taken the Governor, and hanged him, for an alleged
atrocity perpetrated by a band of Indians.1
The execution of the Englishmen, the act of war against Spain by
the invasion of Florida, the building of a fort within her boundaries,
and the occupation of her own forts, were all subjects of warm and
protracted debates in Congress. Jackson's defence was, that the Sec
retary of War had given to him full power to conduct the campaign
as should seem best to himself. Spain, he said, had failed to fulfil
that article of the treaty by which she was bound to restrain the
Indians within her borders from hostilities against the United States ;
and assuming to himself the right to judge whether the treaty had been
violated, and what should be the remedy in case it had, he deter
mined that the punishment of the Seminoles should be used as an
occasion for outraging Spain, though that act, it' resented, might
bring on Avar not only with her but with one or more of her Euro
pean allies. The obvious and unanswerable reply was — that it was
for the Government, not a general in the field, to decide whether a
friendly power had disregarded a treaty ; that the sovereign prerog
ative of deciding upon war or peace could not be usurped either by
the President or the Secretary of War, much less by a major-general
of the army ; that the assumption of these rights, and the arbitrary
hanging and shooting of prisoners, were acts of military despotism not
to be tolerated by a free people under a constitutional government.
Partisan feeling, nevertheless, was strong enough to permit Jackson
to escape even a Congressional rebuke.
But it was not till thirty-five years afterward that Jackson's real
defence was made known in an " Exposition " written by
"BxpMi- him, and published after his death.2 The letter to Monroe
-the substance of which we have given — and an answer
to which Jackson declared he received, he fell back upon as the real
justification of his conduct. As in that letter he had stated, in the
most unequivocal terms, what he believed should be the conduct of a
campaign against the Seminoles, so now he maintained that the Ad
ministration knew precisely what he would do when it gave him com
mand ; and that in the absence of an answer, lie had the right to as-
1 See letter to G. W. Campbell, in Parton's Life of Andrew Jackson, vol. ii.
2 In Thirty Years in the United States Senate, by Thomas H. Beiiton, vol. i.
1819.]
JACKSON AND MONROE.
257
sume that silence was an implied assent to all that he proposed to
do. But lie was not left even to draw an inference. " Let it be
signified to me," he had written, "through any channel (say Mr. J.
lihea), that the pos
session of the Flori-
das would be desira
ble to the United
States, and in sixty
days it will be ac
complished." And
Mr. Rhea, — a mem
ber of Congress
from Tennessee, —
Jackson avers, did
write him " a con
fidential letter,"
and, by direction of
the President, as
sured him that " he
[the President] ap
proved of his sug
gestions."
If this were true,
then it was Monroe
who was responsi-
ble for the outrage
ous violation of the
Constitution perpetrated by Jackson, for his contempt of the faith of
treaties, his disregard of the dangers of foreign wars, his
relentless cruelty which trampled all law under foot. But tumo_fre-
unfortunately the letter could not be produced. Rhea de
clared that he had written it ; another person averred that he had
read it ; but it had been destroyed, Jackson says, at the President's
request, in the spring of 1819, lest "it should fall into the hands of
those who would make an improper use of it." The gentle and com
pliant General, though at that moment his conduct \vas under debate
in the United States Senate and before the whole country, though it
was a question whether his utter ruin and utter dishonor were not
impending, meekly burnt the letter which was his complete justifica
tion.
The account which others gave of this correspondence is not less
remarkable. Monroe acknowledged that he had received the Gen
eral's letter, but that, being ill, he gave it to Calhoun, who read and
James Monroe.
17
258 MONROE'S ADMINISTRATION. [CHAP. X.
returned it, remarking that it was confidential, and that the Presi
dent must answer it. The President declares that he did not answer,
that he even forgot its existence, and did not read it till long after
ward. The question is thus narrowed down to one of veracity, or
accuracy of memory, between Monroe on one side, and Jackson, with
his two friends, on the other. Perhaps the President forgot ; per
haps he lied. He was not a very strong or a very wise man ; but he
was a weaker man than he has ever been accused of being, if, know
ing Andrew Jackson as he must have known him, he threw aside
and forgot a letter which his Secretary of State had read, and said
was confidential, and " he must answer."
But whether Jackson's letter was answered or not, it was quite
sufficient for his purpose that it should not be answered. When
Calhoun read the bold proposition of this man to seize Florida on
his own responsibility, if the Administration feared to have it done
by their orders, he could hardly have failed to know what was about
to happen unless hindered by prompt and energetic interference.
But he did nothing ; the President did nothing ; and the moral re
sponsibility for this was hardly less than if they had approved di
rectly of all they knew Jackson would certainly do.
In this entanglement of assertion and contradiction, the truth will
probably never be known. Either Jackson and his two friends as
serted what they knew to be absolutely false, in regard to the letter,
or Monroe failed to remember what it would seem impossible for him
to forget, or else deliberately denied what he knew to be true. Even
then, there remains the enigma of Calhoun's course, who, knowing pre
cisely what Jackson proposed to do, did nothing to prevent it, and
yet gave it afterward, in all the cabinet discussions, according to Mr.
Adams's Diary, his unqualified disapprobation. Was he honest in
this disapprobation? This at least is certain — that the acquisition
of Florida was determined upon by the Administration. During all
these months the Spanish Minister in Washington, Onis, and the
Secretary of State, Adams, were in negotiation upon a treaty. An
irresponsible seizure of the province might hasten Spain to come to
terms lest there should be nothing left her to come to terms about.
Should she refuse to come to any terms, and the Administration be
determined to take Florida by force, it would be a good initiative
war measure to have American garrisons in several of her important
forts. If this was the policy of the Administration, no more effectual
instrument to carry it out could be found, though he might be an
unconscious one, than Andrew Jackson.
The Spanish Minister protested against the invasion of the terri
tory of his sovereign, but he, nevertheless, hastened — whether it
1819.]
JACKSON AND MONROE.
259
was intended or not that Jie should be so influenced — the negotia
tions for a treaty. In February, 1819, it was concluded, Cessionof
though the ratification was delayed for two years by Spain. Seifnited
The Floridas were ceded to the United States, the latter states-
agreeing to pay the claims of American citizens upon Spain to the
amount of five million dollars. The Sabine, instead of the Rio
Grande, was agreed upon as the dividing line between the territories
of the two governments west of the Mississippi ; — that line to run
from the mouth of the Sabine to the 32d parallel, thence north to
the Red River and along it to the 100th meridian, thence north to
the Arkansas and along it to its source on or near the 42d parallel
and thence west to the Pacific.1
1 See page 146, supra.
CHAPTER XI.
MONROE'S ADMINISTRATION.
THE MISSOURI QUESTION. — EXTENSION OF SLAVERY. — DOMESTIC SLAVE-TKADE. —
INCREASE OF THE SLAVE POWER. — THE COMPROMISE LINE OF 36° '50'. — A
NORTHERN MEASURE. — CONGRESSIONAL STRATEGY. — No ADMISSION OF FREE
STATES WITHOUT SLAVE STATES. — RANDOLPH'S " DOUGH-FACES." — COMPROMISES
IN CONGRESS AND CABINET. — LIMITED MEANING OF FOREVER. — CLOSING YEARS
OF MONROE'S SECOND TERM. — THE TARIFF. — INTERNAL IMPROVEMENTS.—
STEAM ON THE LAKES. — FIRST OCEAN STEAMER. — THE "MONROE DOCTRINE."
— ELECTION OF JOHN QUINCY ADAMS TO THE PRESIDENCY.
WHILE the Florida question was under consideration in Congress,
there suddenly arose another, not less significant as to the
Slavery re-
ccivesancw actual character or the government, and far more momen
tous in its influence upon the welfare of the people and
their future history. The two antagonistic elements struggling for
mastery in the Union — the civilization of the North achieving results
in intellectual, moral, political, and material happiness that only the
labor of the heads and hands of free men can achieve ; and that rude
condition of society at the South where the laborer was little more
than a beast of burden, existing for the convenience of a small privi
leged class which recognized neither the dignity, the beauty, nor the
power of an equality of rights as the true order of human society —
these two forces were brought for the first time fairly and squarely
face to face. The compromise agreed upon in framing the Constitu
tion, which unfortunately had acknowledged that slavery might have
a legal existence, was about to do its perfect work. The permission
to exist unmolested was thought, at first, all that the Constitution
granted ; but with toleration the system had grown strong enough
to assert that it had, not merely the right to exist, but the power to
govern.
" Let us alone," the slaveholders had cried out at the formation of
the Constitution. Some of them really believed, as all the North was
sincerely persuaded, that so unprofitable a system as that of slave-
labor would soon be abandoned when the cheap supply from Africa
ceased, and there were no longer any fresh and virgin lands to retreat
1818.] THE DOMESTIC SLAVE-TRADE. 261
to from the worn-out fields of the Atlantic States. Whatever force
there was, if there were any, in this view of the subject, was nullified
first by Whitney's invention of the cotton-gin, and next by the ac
quisition of Louisiana. The demand for cotton for manufacture was
enormously increased when the seed could be freed from two hundred
pounds of the fibre in a single day by the gin, whereas only a single
pound or two could be so cleansed in a day by hand. The value of
slave-labor rose in proportion, though this would have soon reached
a limit had not the new lands on the lower Mississippi opened a vast
field for the profitable employment of slaves in the production of
sugar and tobacco, as well as of cotton.
In the eastern portion of the older States, where the soil was
already exhausted, or was sure soon to be, slaves became a more val
uable possession than ever. A market that it seemed almost impos
sible to over-stock, was opened for the surplus production of men and
women on the worn-out lands where they soon would have been a
burden. The extension of slavery saved it from gradual extinction,
in this opening of a new slave-trade which no foreign legislation could
render precarious, and no domestic legislation would be per-
The domes-
mitted to touch. Its importance to eastern stock-breeders, tic slave-
trade.
when fully established, was shown in a report of a south
western agricultural society, which avowed it to be a sound princi
ple, in the management of a plantation, to work up a gang of negroes
in seven years, and supply its place by new purchases, rather than
attempt to prolong the lives of a gang in hand by moderate labor.
The demand for slaves, in a market so active as that, was as certain
as the demand for beeves in the shambles of a great city.
There was some avowed natural abhorrence, even among those who
profited by it, to this inter-State traffic in the colored natives of the
South. The leading men of that part of the country and their sub
servient followers of the North — remembered chiefly for that sub
serviency — maintained, indeed, with increasing zeal the comprehen
sive doctrine announced many years before by a Northern man, —
Sedgwick, a member of Congress from Massachusetts, — who said,
" to propose an abolition of slavery in this country would be the
height of madness." But there were some among the slaveholders,
like the eccentric John Randolph of Virginia, who, while upholding
slavery, denounced, without restraint, the traffic carried on at the
kitchen-doors and in the huts of Southern plantations, regardless of
any other consideration than the market price and the soundness in
wind and limb of the young men and women torn from their homes
for the allotted seven years of life and service in the southwest.
Thus in the progress of mechanical invention in the production
262 MOXROE'S ADMINISTRATION [CHAP. XI.
and manufacture of cotton, and by the acquisition of new territory,
slavery had come to put on quite another aspect from that which it
presented when Southern statesmen had wept over it as a burden
imposed on the colonies by a tyrannical step-mother. They had,
indeed, never taken any effectual steps to rid themselves of that
burden, and if they were not quite frank enough to thank England
for her share in the bestowal of what they now accepted as a bless
ing, there were many who were grateful for the foresight that had
cherished it. It was for the children now to avail themselves of the
wisdom of the fathers. Of what value would the compromises of
the Constitution be to them if, by the admission of new free States,
Necessity — while the number of the slave States remained unaltered
s^of^ave or only slightly increased, — they should be shorn of polit
ical power ? There must be new slave States in which five
slaves should be counted as three Northern freemen in the repre
sentation of the South in the lower house of Congress — IICAV slave
States to keep the balance of State representation even in the Senate.
As an industrial system, slavery would sting itself to death if not per
mitted to uncoil and expand ; as a political system, it would be stran
gled in the hands of the young giant by its side, if checked in its
growth for want of nutriment.
The South could not, therefore, afford to give up, without a valu
able equivalent, a foot of territory whose soil was suitable for the
products of slave- labor. By the Spanish treaty, at this time under
discussion, the claim to all the region between the Sabine and the
Rio Grande was abandoned ; and, though Florida was to be gained
for the occupation of slavery, and that safe refuge for self-emanci
pated slaves was to be broken up forever, yet the surrender of all
claim to the southwestern region was looked upon as a great sacri
fice. The possible area of the extension of slavery was by so much
limited, and the South was all the more determined to defend the
remaining territory, where slaves could be profitably used, against the
encroachments of free men and free labor.
In March, 1818, the citizens of Missouri asked permission of Con
gress to form a State constitution, and to be admitted to the
H>nriqueg- Union. It was too late for any action, beyond the report of
a committee, at that session ; but when action should be
taken it would settle the question whether the fundamental principle
of the Republic was liberty or slavery ; whether the rights of free
men and of free labor must yield to the privilege claimed by slave
holders for the exclusive — necessarily exclusive — occupation of
the soil by their slaves whenever a conflict should arise between
these two forces ; and whether the government of the country should
1818.]
THE EXTENSION OF SLAVERY.
263
be ia the hands of the people or in the hands of a class who derived
their power from their ownership of slaves. By the adoption of the
Federal Constitution the people had consented to leave the respon
sibility for the continuance of slavery to those States where it then
existed. It was maintained, as a just consequence of that agree
ment, that slavery might be carried into territory on the eastern side
of the Mississippi, belonging originally to those States, and that new
States created out of that territory should be admitted to the Union
with the right to hold slaves unquestioned. But the purchased Ter
ritory of Louisiana, on the western side of the river, belonged to the
United States, not to several States ; and the question now was,
whether the Federal Government should deliberately establish slavery
by law where hitherto it had existed, if it existed at all, by suffer
ance only.
The clumsy pretence had been, that the responsibility for slavery
did not rest upon the whole country, in spite of the constitutional
provisions — the toleration of the foreign slave-trade for twenty
years ; the representation of property in slaves by the three-fifths
rule ; and the rendition of fugitives, which made the law of slavery
paramount to the natural law of freedom, to the remotest corner of
the Union. This soothing figment, that the North had nothing to
do with slavery, lulled the sluggish Northern conscience and befogged
Northern intelligence ; and it was a convenient plea for the slave-
264 MONROE'S ADMINISTRATION. [CHAP. XI.
holders to assert, when it suited their purpose, that the Federal Gov
ernment had nothing to with the system. But to establish slavery
de novo in territory belonging to the United States, by the action of
Congress, would be to take away both pretence and plea. The pur
pose of the Constitution was primarily " to establish justice, insure
domestic tranquillity, promote the general welfare, and secure the
blessings of liberty." The enslavement of a portion of the people
was to violate justice, jeopard domestic tranquillity, interfere with
the general welfare, and deny the blessings of liberty, either directly
or indirectly, to all who were not slaveholders. The framers of the
Constitution had weakly consented to let slavery alone ; but neither
in accordance with the principles of that instrument, nor by any
rightful exercise of power pertaining to human governments, could
such a system be created as a legal condition by act of Congress or
by State legislation.
Nevertheless, the fathers had eaten sour grapes, and the children's
Power of the teeth were set on edge. The Constitution had put political
power into the hands of the slaveholders as a class, and the
alternative presented now, as when the Constitution was adopted, was
submission, or a dissolution of the Union. The North, though in the
majority in Congress, were defeated, after a long and anxious struggle,
first, by superior organization, and secondly, by the adherence of a few
Northern allies to the party determined upon the extension of slavery.
"The slave-drivers, as usual," —wrote John Quincy Adams, the Sec
retary of State, in his Diary, — "whenever this topic is brought up,
bluster and bully, talk of the white slaves of the Eastern States, and
the dissolution of the Union, and oceans of blood ; and the Northern
men, as usual, pocket all this hectoring, sit down in quiet, and submit
to the slave-scourging republicanism of the planters." They were not
many who thus submitted, but they were enough.1
1 Mr. Adams doubted if, under the Constitution, Congress had the right to prohibit
slavery in a territory where it already existed. But he did not shrink from a considera
tion of the question of dissolution. "If," he wrote, "the dissolution of the Union should
result from the slave question, it is as obvious as anything that can be foreseen of futurity,
that it must shortly afterwards be followed by the universal emancipation of the slaves. . . .
A dissolution, at least temporary, of the Union as now constituted, would be certainly
necessary [for emancipation], and the dissolution must be upon a point involving the ques
tion of slavery, and no other. The Union might then be reorganized on the principle of
emancipation. This object is vast in its compass, awful in its prospects, sublime and beau
tiful in its issue. A life devoted to it would be nobly spent or sacrificed." lie neverthe
less approved of the Missouri Compromise, while foreseeing its consequences, believing it
the only way then of meeting the difficulty. But after it was passed he said, " 1'erhaps
it would have been a wiser as well as a bolder course to have persisted in the restriction
upon Missouri, till it should have terminated in a Convention of the States to revise and
amend the Constitution. This would have produced a new Union of thirteen or fourteen
States, unpolluted with slavery ; with a great and glorious object to effect, namely, that of
1819.] THE EXTENSION OF SLAVERY. 265
In February, 1819, a bill was introduced in the House of Repre
sentatives, for the admission of Missouri. James Tallmadge,
Jr., of New York, proposed as a condition of admission, that admit Mis-
from that moment there should be no personal servitude
within the State, except of those already held as slaves, and that
these should be manumitted within a certain period. This proposal
he subsequently modified by moving as an amendment to the bill
that the introduction of slavery into the State should be prohibited,
but that those already slaves within the territory should remain so,
and their children after them to the age of twenty-five years. Here
at the outset was a weak concession, for instead of the absolute ex
clusion of slavery, it permitted the enslavement of a generation as
yet unborn. The bill was passed with the amendment, however, by
a small majority, and sent to the Senate, where it was rejected. As
the two Houses could not agree, the question went over to another
year.
The debate from the beginning had been, on the part of the North,
an earnest appeal to reason, to patriotism, to humanity, and to funda
mental law ; on the part of the South, which presented a stern, un
broken front, impassioned, overbearing, defiant, and threatening. The
North was told to " beware of the fate of Csesar and' of Rome ; " a
Northern member was denounced as " no better than Arbuthnot and
Ambrister, and deserves no better fate ; " Cobb of Georgia said that
this attempt to interfere with slavery was " destructive of the peace
and harmony of the Union ; " that those who proposed it u were kind
ling a fire which all the waters of the ocean could not extinguish. It
could be extinguished only in blood ! " For that prophecy he deserves
that his name should go down in history. While the debate was in
progress, a striking illustration of what the South was contending for
was — said Tallmadge in his speech — "witnessed from the windows
of Congress Hall, and viewed by members who compose the legislative
councils of Republican America ! " Missouri must be secured as a
negro-market. "A slave-driver," he said, ua trafficker in human
flesh, as if sent by Providence, has passed the door of your Capitol,
on his way to the West, driving before him about fifteen of these
wretched victims of his power. The males, who might raise the arm
of vengeance, and retaliate for their wrongs, were handcuffed and
chained to each other, while the females and children were marched
in their rear, under the guidance of the driver's whip ! "
rallying to their standard the other States by the universal emancipation of their slaves."
Had the "wiser and holder course " been persisted in, and the question of disunion met and
settled in 1820, who can doubt that civilization and free and intelligent government would
have been advanced forty years, without the enormous sacrifice which waiting forty years
demanded ?
266
MONROE'S ADMINISTRATION.
[CHAP. XI.
The Arkan
sas Bill.
The Missouri question being thus disposed of for that session, the
cognate question of the establishment of a government for
the southern part of the Missouri Territory, south of 36°
30' — the Arkansas country — was taken up. Both in the House and
in the Senate an amendment to prohibit slavery therein was moved
and lost, and the first step in the controversy was gained by the
South.1 In the course of the debate Louis McLane, a representative
A Slave-Coffle passing the Capitol.
in the House from Delaware, suggested as a compromise a division
of the Western territory between the free and slave States.
The next session, convened in December, the contest was renewed,
1 Wilson, in his Rise and Fall of ike Slave Power in America, is in error in assigning the
action of Congress on the Arkansas Bill to the following December. This is not merely an
error in date : — the passage of the bill would have lost much of its significance had it
been postponed ten months. It should be remembered that on the 16th of February,
Tallmadge's amendment to the Missouri Bill, prohibiting slavery, had passed the House.
Immediate alarm was taken ; the Arkansas Bill was introduced the next day, and before
sunset the perpetuation of slavery south of 36° 30' was assured in the territory west of the
Mississippi. It was a great point gained. The precedent was secured of establishing slav-
1819.] CONGRESSIONAL STRATEGY. 267
the North, meanwhile, in resolutions of State legislatures, and the
unequivocal expressions of public opinion, condemning the exten
sion and perpetuation of slavery under the protecting power of the
national government. A northeast wind could not have been less
heeded at the South. " They may philosophize and town-
, , ,. . , , , Sentiments
meeting about it as much as they please, said Macon, of the
a North Carolina Senator, with contemptuous insolence ;
" but, with great submission, they know nothing about the question."
In the House, the question was presented, as at the previous ses
sion — a bill for the admission of Missouri, with an amendment, pro
posed by John W. Taylor, of New York, prohibiting slavery, except
in regard to those who were already slaves in the Territory. The
anti-slavery men, led by Taylor, kept that issue clearly in view for
several weeks of hot and passionate debate, and did not permit them
selves to be turned from their purpose by propositions and
. . -C 1 • 1 " 1 J 1 The struggle
resolutions, some of which were treacherous and some only over Mis-
stupid. These, however, it should be said, came often from
Northern members, who, having determined to betray the North,
aimed to do so by rendering service as conspicuous as it was possible
to make it, compatible with the degree of ignominy it was their aim
to avoid. Chief among these were John Holmes, from the Maine dis
trict of Massachusetts, and Henry R. Storrs, of New York. The bill
was finally passed by a vote of ninety-one to eighty-two, the prohib
itory amendment being first adopted by a majority of eight.
But this was a defeat only of the advanced guard. The real strug
gle was in the Senate, where the final victory was by parliamentary
strategy, which first confused and divided, and then dispersed the
weaker Northern column. To a bill for the admission of Maine the
admission of Missouri was attached as an amendment. The Maine
bill was sent to the Senate from the House, possibly before it oc
curred to anybody that use might be made of it to influence the
other question. The suggestion of a resort to this stratagem was, at
any rate, first made in a speech in the House by the Speaker, Henry
Cla}', on the 20th of December, who declared "• that he did not mean
to give his consent to the admission of the State of Maine into the
Union, so long as the doctrines were upheld of annexing conditions
to the admission of States into the Union from beyond the moun
tains." It is hardly necessary to remind the reader that there was no
just parallel in the two cases. The right of Maine to admission as a
ery by positive legislation in territory not belonging to the United States at the time of the
adoption of the Constitution ; and the difficulty was avoided, in the further consideration
of the Missouri question, of there being free territory, or territory still to dispute over,
south of the parallel of 36° 30'.
268 MONROE'S ADMINISTRATION. [CHAP. XI.
part of one of the original thirteen States, with a republican form of
government, was absolute under the Constitution. The question witli
regard to Missouri was whether, under the Constitution, Congress
had the right to create a new State out of purchased territory, and
admit it to the Union without a republican form of government.
But Clay's threat in the House was improved in the Senate. The
memorial from the Legislature of Missouri was taken from the files
of the last session and referred to the judiciary committee of the
Senate. A few days afterward, a bill for the admission of Maine was
received from the House, and that was referred to the same commit
tee. In accordance theirwith a suggestion from Barbour, of Virginia,
— in a notice of a proposed motion, — the judiciary committee re
ported the House bill for the admission of Maine, but adding to it
an amendment for the admission of Missouri.
An unsuccessful attempt was made to defeat this trickery. Jona
than Roberts, of Pennsylvania, moved to amend the amendment by
prohibiting slavery in Missouri. This was rejected by a majority
of eleven, six of the number being Senators from free States. Had
the six Northern votes been added to the sixteen given in favor
of the amendment by the other Northern Senators, it would have
been carried by a majority of one. There was still, however, a
chance to defeat the bill on the proposition to make the admission of
Division of Maine dependent upon the admission of Missouri. But that
also was carried by Northern votes. The majority was two
in the affirmative, the Senators from Illinois, Edwards and Thomas,
and one of the Indiana Senators, Taylor, voting for it. The whole
forty-four votes of the Senate were cast on this question ; as Van
Dyke and Horsey, of Delaware, voted with the North, the majority
would have been four against the bill, had the three Senators from
Illinois and Indiana been faithful to the cause of the free States.1
The two Houses now stood directly opposed to each other. The
Representatives would not recede from their decision to prohibit
slavery in Missouri, nor accept the Senate's amendment to make the
admission of Missouri the condition of the admission of Maine. The
Senate was equally determined that Missouri should come into the
Union as a slave State, and that unless that point was yielded, no free
State should be admitted. Had the House maintained its ground, the
United States, for the next half century, would have had another
history.
But Thomas, of Illinois, who had voted thus far with the South,
now came forward with the compromise measure, in accepting which
1 The vote on prohibition was 27 to 16; that on adding the admission of Missouri to
the Maine hill, 23 to 21.
1819.]
THE MISSOURI COMPROMISE.
269
the North gave up the essential principle that the opponents of slav
ery had all along contended for. Present peace, indeed, was Tbe compro.
gained, — if peace were really in jeopardy, — but it was mise-
only by smothering a fire which at a future day was to break forth
with a violence and destructive force of which it was at that time in
capable. The gain on one side was the extension of slavery and the
admission of a new slave State ; on the other was the promise of a
prohibition of slavery in future States, the fulfilment of which was
only secured, when the time came, by fighting for it.
A Sugar Plantation.
Thomas's proposition was, to prohibit slavery in all that portion of
the Louisiana purchase lying north of 36° 30', excepting Missouri.
This make-shift was acceded to by twenty Northern Senators, two
only voting against it ; and by fourteen Southern Senators, eight vot
ing against it.1 A second vote on this proposition — on a motion to
recede from it — was the same, except that Senator Sanford, of New
York, voted against it instead of for it, as on the first ballot. Yet,
when the bill came up for its final passage, two days later, it was
1 The vote was 34 to 10.
270 MONROE'S ADMINISTRATION. [CHAP. XI.
passed by a majority of four only, — Edwards and Thomas, of Illi
nois, Hunter, of Rhode Island, and Parrott, of New Hampshire.
A committee of conference from the two Houses had met in the
mean time, and recommended that the Senate recede from the amend
ment which added the admission of Missouri to the bill admitting
Maine, and that the House recede from its amendment prohibiting
the introduction of slavery into Missouri, and accept, instead, the
compromise line of 36° 30' adopted by the Senate. But this the
House had already done before the committee of conference had re
ported, — receding from its own amendment by a vote of ninety to
eighty-seven. Twelve Northern men voted in the affirmative, — three
times as many as were needed to secure a majority. The compromise
measure was then passed by the overwhelming vote of one hundred
and thirty-four to forty-two ; and among the forty-two, thirty-seven
were from the slaveholding States, leaving five opponents only from
the free States. The more radical of the slaveholders denied the
right of free labor to any territory whatever.
The measure was a Northern measure, carried by Northern votes.
With some the threats of disunion were a sufficient influence ; 1 some,
whom in the debate Randolph called "dough-faces," did not need
even that. The Southerners stood by their order without failure and
without faltering. The threat to keep out Maine, unless Missouri
were admitted, did its work, nor did the Senate recede from that
HOW it was menace till the Hoi\se had succumbed. There was even
another trick still in reserve. Before the House bill was
sent to the Senate, Randolph moved a reconsideration, that the ques
tion might be reopened, in the hope of defeating the compromise and
saving the territory north of 36° 30' for slavery. Clay, the Speaker,
declared the motion out of order till the ordinary business of the
House — the reading of the journal — was disposed of. While this
was going on, the Speaker hurried off the bill to the Senate, and,
when Randolph renewed his motion, pronounced it again out of
order, as the bill was no longer in possession of the House. Ran
dolph's anger was unrestrained. He moved that the clerk had been
guilty of a violation of the privileges of a member ; and, when that
was negatived, he moved that the rule securing to members the priv
ilege he had exercised in regard to a motion of reconsideration be
expunged as useless. The question was serious enough to call for an
1 " In the hottest paroxysm of the Missouri question in the Senate, James Barbour, one
of the Virginia Senators, was going round to all the free-State members and proposing to
them to call a Convention of the States to dissolve the Union, and agree upon the terms of
separation and the mode of disposing of the public debt and of the lands, and make other
necessary arrangements of disunion." — Adams's Diary.
1820.]
THE MISSOURI COMPROMISE.
271
explanation from Clay, at the next session of Congress ; but the only
true explanation was, that the victory having been once gained, it was
not to be jeoparded by another struggle through obedience to par
liamentary law.
There was still another compromise to be made, and that was in
the Cabinet. When the bill came to the President, he asked advice,
on two points. First, whether Congress had a constitutional right to
prohibit slavery in a Territory ? The Cabinet were agreed Action of
that the right existed. Then he asked if the section prohib- jent^nd1 his
iting slavery " forever " referred only to the territorial con- Cablnet-
dition, or was also applicable when a Territory should become a State?
The Cabinet, except Mr. Adams,
agreed that "forever" applied
only to the territorial condition ;
but the Secretary of State main
tained that "forever" meant lit
erally forever, whether in Terri
tory or State. The President
wished the answers to be in
writing ; to w.hich Mr. Adams
said that, as he stood alone, in
his reply to the second question
he should wish to give his rea
sons. To escape this, it was
proposed to avoid the question of
"forever" as relating to States,
and ask only whether the section
prohibiting slavery in the Terri
tories forever was constitutional. And on this the order of proceeding
was reversed : Mr. Adams was only to reply in the affirmative without
his reasons, while the rest were to explain in writing, that the prohibi
tion was constitutional, but "forever" meant only while the territorial
condition existed. With this mental reservation on the part of the
President and his Cabinet — Mr. Adams excepted — the bill was
signed, and in it was the whole pith and meaning of the Missouri
Compromise, as the country learned thirty-five years afterward. It
was a promise and agreement given to the ear and broken to the hope.
When at that later time these written opinions of Monroe's Cabinet
were searched for in the Department of State, " it is a singular cir
cumstance," says Mr. Charles Francis Adams, in a note to his father's
Diary, " that nothing was found but what appeared to have been an
envelope referring to them as enclosed."
But even yet the pretended compromise was not quite finished.
John Randolph.
272 MONROE'S ADMINISTRATION. [CHAP. XI.
The next session Missouri sent her Constitution to Congress, and
asked admission. An article of that Constitution declared
constitu-" that " it shall be the duty of the Legislature to pass laws to
prevent free negroes and mulattoes from coming to and set
tling in the State, under any pretext whatsoever." The question of
the admission of the State was reopened, though upon new ground.
Her Constitution must be in accordance with the Constitution of the
United States, and that declared that " the citizens of each State shall
be entitled to all the immunities and privileges of the several States."
Were free negroes and mulattoes citizens ? If they were, the Con
stitution of Missouri was not in accordance with the Constitution of
the United States, and she was not entitled to admission.
For three months the debate on this question continued in the
same spirit, with much of the same asperity and menace on the one
hand, and the same faltering on the other. The House was for a
while as firm as it was before against the admission of Missouri as a
slave State, and the Senate was equally firm that the colored citizens
of other States should be denied citizenship by her if she so pleased.
It came at last, as before, to a conference committee, and the ques
tion, as before, under the leadership of Clay, was compromised. It
was decided that the State should be admitted when her Legislature
should agree that the section of the Constitution in question should
not be construed as authorizing a law excluding any citizens of other
States from any immunities and privileges to which they were enti
tled under the Constitution of the United States, and that no such
law should be passed. Such a pledge the Legislature of Missouri
gave ; but the objectionable clause remained in her Constitution, and
the power remained with her, notwithstanding the act, to decide
whether free negroes and mulattoes were citizens in other States,
and, if they were not, to deny them citizenship in Missouri under
her Constitution.
It was three years from the time the Missouri question first came
before Congress (March, 1818) to this final compromise (February,
1821), by which the slaveholders gained all they contended for, and
the Federal Government made itself responsible, not merely for the
toleration of slavery, but for its establishment where it could exist
only because it was so established. The slaveholders had learned
how to govern, and the secret lay, first, in the perfect organization of
their own order, and secondly in holding in their pay a menial party
at the North, — called sometimes by one name, sometimes by another,
— on whose obedience they could always count, and with whose aid
they were almost always invincible. In the admission of Missouri
there was, for the first time, a clean-cut, unmixed issue on the ques-
1821.]
TRIUMPH OF THE SLAVEHOLDERS.
273
tion of a free government or a slaveliolding government in the United
States ; and the slaveholders trampled the principles of the Consti
tution and the rights and interests of freemen beneath their feet.
Henceforth the inevitable conflict between freedom and slavery was
an open one, and it could only end in the dissolution and reconstruc
tion of the Union. Cobb's prophecy was to come true, though not in
the way he meant.
The completeness of the triumph of the slaveholders was plain to
all men, and those who were wise saw in the almost immediate use
Attempt to
made of it what the future
might bring forth.
Foremost among the
treacherous representatives of the Northern States in the
late struggle had been the Senators of Illinois and Indiana,
and that treachery was followed up, as the next step, by an attempt
to make them both slaveholding States, notwithstanding the funda
mental and binding law of the Ordinance of 1787. The project was
defeated, however, by a popular movement, led in Illinois by Gover
nor Edward Coles.
But even this failed to arouse a suspicion of the price the future was
to pay for the Missouri Compromise, and that what had been so fatu-
18
274- MONROE'S ADMINISTRATION. [CHAP. XI.
ously mistaken for a bargain was meant to be a gigantic fraud. The
mass of the people in 1820, at the North at least, were, without
doubt, heartily sick of the subject, and were anxious for peace on
almost any terms. Missouri was then, and was likely to continue to
be, a far-off and unknown land to most of the people of the Northern
Atlantic States. Why need they care whether there were slaves there
or not ? Why, especially, need they be troubled that free negroes
were to have no rights in Missouri ? Was it quite certain that free
negroes had any rights anywhere, though in some States they were
tolerably secure in the privilege of not being slaves ? The question
was soon forgotten.
" So with a sullen ' All 's for best,'
The land seemed settling to its rest."
Topics of more immediate interest, and generally esteemed of more
importance, engaged the popular attention. The question of internal
internal im- improvements grew in importance year by year, and noth-
provcments. 'ng markec[ more distinctly the departure of the dominant
party from the principles by which it had been governed in its ear
lier days. It was a favorite doctrine of the earlier Federalists, that,
both for the good of the people, and for the sake of consolidating the
Union, such improvements Avere.a legitimate object of the fostering
care of the Federal Government. The strict constructionists — as
the Democrats assumed to be — opposed this doctrine. The Jeffer-
sonian party held no more positive principle than that works of pub
lic improvement should be left to the States or to private enterprise,
and that there was nothing in the Constitution that warranted the
assumption of such a duty by the Federal Government. One of
Madison's last acts was to veto a bill passed by Congress " to set
apart and pledge certain funds for internal improvements."
But it was not difficult for strict constructionists to find sufficient
authority in the general purposes of the Constitution to warrant the
interference of the Federal Government when it suited them to change
their policy. More than a million dollars were expended during Mon
roe's administration to build the national road from Cumberland, in
Maryland, to Ohio ; other roads and canals were projected then, or a
little later, in different parts of the country, which, before they were
finished, received of the Government still larger sums. It would lie
an instructive inquiry to examine the cost, the usefulness, and the end
of some of the works thus undertaken for the public good at the pub
lic expense, and to learn how far they have been outstripped and su
perseded by works built by private energy, with private capital.
But whether Federal legislation was wise or foolish under the im
pulse of material progress, that progress was rapid and general during
1818.]
INTERNAL IMPROVEMENTS.
275
this period, sometimes with the aid of State Legislatures, sometimes
through the unassisted labors of private citizens of large brain and
iron will. In the face of unsparing ridicule, De Witt Clin- TheErie
ton dug his " ditch " three hundred and sixty-three miles CiluaL
long, connecting Lake Erie and all the upper lakes with the tide- water
of the Atlantic. On the 4th of July, 1817, the first spade-full of
earth was turned in this great work, and in October, 1825, the largest
canal in the world was open for traffic. Its route was through a
region of almost unsurpassed fertility, much of it then a wilderness,
and new towns sprang up along its banks, some of them to grow, in
a few years,
to large cities.
Its original
cost was seven
millionsix
hundred thou
sand dollars,
and its annual
earnings have
s o m e t i m e s
been nearly
half that sum,
while the
amount of
traffic has sur
passed that of
the River
Rhine.1
Steamboats
were no lon
ger a novelty
and an experiment in eastern waters, where they were coming grad
ually into favor. At the West, in 1818, the long smoke-
pennant floated over Lake Erie from the steamer Walk-in- boat on the
the-Water, which ran regularly to Detroit. The next year
a more memorable event occurred, in the first passage of a steamship
across the Atlantic. On the roll of honored names of those who
gave their energies to the successful application of steam to navi
gation belongs, among the first, that of Moses Rogers, of New Lon
don, Connecticut. It was he who first ventured out to sea in com
mand of the steamboat Phoenix, sent by John Stevens, of New York,
1 The project of the Erie Canal is believed to have been originated by Jesse Hawley,
who in 1807-8 published a series of articles upon its feasibility and value.
Steamboat " Walk-in-the-Water."
276 MONROE'S ADMINISTRATION. [CHAP. XI.
in 1808, from that port to DelaAvare Bay. In the summer of 1819,
in command of the ship Savannah, of three hundred tons, he sailed
First ocean and steamed — for he used both sails and wheels — from
steamship. jyjew York to Savannah, thence to Liverpool, and thence
up the Baltic to St. Petersburg. His ship carried seventy-five tons
of coal and twenty-five cords of wood, and to economize these he
depended on his sails when the wind was favorable. When under
sail, and in stormy weather, the wheels were unshipped and taken on
board.
The voyage was nine days to Savannah from New York, and
twenty -five days from Savannah to within sight of the coast of Ire
land. When seen from on shore, she was supposed to be a ship on
fire, and a revenue cruiser went out from Cork to offer her relief.
The Savannah was built in New York, and her engines made at
Morristown, New Jersey. The enterprise was purely American, but
its importance found no recognition by Congress. Captain Rogers
visited Washington in his ship, after his return from Russia, and an
attempt was made to sell her to the Government. The ship and
her remarkable voyage seem to have been utterly unnoticed by that
body of men, who could hardly give themselves rest for a single
session from months of discussion upon American industry. This
transatlantic voyage had no immediate influence upon the commerce
of the world, and the attempt was not repeated for twenty years ; it
was, nevertheless, an advancement in the art of navigation, as im
portant in the intercourse of nations as that obtained by the inven
tion of the mariner's compass.1
The last two years of Monroe's administration were crowded with
close of political intrigues for the presidential succession. The Pres-
actataistra- ident himself sank almost into insignificance as his power
waned ; and it is pitiful to see how the man who, from the
very birth of the Republic, had been among the most distinguished
of her statesmen, was pushed aside, as his long career drew towards a
close, and is hardly visible at all except in the attitude of a suppliant
to the new men for some arrearages of pay for forgotten services. In
his Cabinet were three candidates — Adams, Crawford, and Calhoun
— for the chair he was about to vacate ; for the early rule had not yet
fallen into desuetude, that the fit person to fill the office of chief mag
istrate was to be found among those whose unquestioned ability, faith
ful public service, and long experience in other responsible positions,
entitled them to the confidence of their fellow-citizens. It was not
1 Captain Rogers died within two years of his return from this voyage. His log-book,
from which we make a fac-similc extract, was kindly lent me by his daughter, Mrs. S. A.
Ward, of New London, Connecticut.
1823.]
CLOSE OF MONROE'S SECOND TERM.
277
till years afterward that this wise unwritten law was departed from
in the nomination of James K. Polk. From that time till now, how
ever, its violation, under the despotism of the National Convention,
has been rather the rule than the exception, the selection of a Presi
dent depending, not upon the wishes or the will of the people, nor
the eminence for character, ability, and distinguished services of a
candidate, but upon the combinations — matured or momentary, but
always selfish and often corrupt — of party leaders.
But besides the three Cabinet candidates, there were two others —
Clay and Jackson — and around each clustered many warm presidential
and earnest partisans. Fortunately this large number to candldates-
choose from made it possible to get rid of the imperious power of
dictation which had grown out of the method of presidential nomina
tions by the Congressional caucus.
As Crawford had the largest fol
lowing among the members of
Congress, a caucus nomination,
should it be accepted, was a fore
gone defeat of all his competi
tors. The first necessity, therefore,
was to set aside such a nomina
tion, and Crawford's opponents
could unite in this if they could
agree in nothing else. When, in
due season, the caucus was called,
they refused to attend it, and the
decision of the followers of Craw
ford was held to be not binding
upon the party. The people were
free to vote for whomsoever they pleased. The other candidates
were all, it should be remembered, of the same party ; although that
"era of good feeling," • —which was held to be significant of Monroe's
administration, really because the Federal party was finally exter
minated, and the Republicans, or Democrats, were left in unques
tioned possession of power — had resulted in dividing the Republicans
into as many factions as there were acknowledged leaders. But be
neath this division lay a deeper discord, — the hidden consequence of
the Missouri Compromise, which the "era of good feeling" had
made possible, — that the time had come for the end of the twenty-
four years of the Virginia dynasty, and the election of a Northern
President.
There were cabals, intrigues, and, no doubt, bargains without num
ber in this struggle of factions, this strife of ambitious politicians,
William H. Crawford.
278 MONROE'S ADMINISTRATION. [CHAP. XI.
amid the final explosion of fraternal amiability-1 This condition of
Anew things had its influence upon all subjects which came be
fore Congress for discussion and settlement. . The revision
of the tariff, which occupied the attention of both Houses for nearly
three months in the session of 1823-24, was decided, more than ever,
by considerations of geographical interests. With more distinctiveness
and determination than ever, it was maintained that duties upon im
ports should be enforced for the encouragement and protection of
manufacturing industry at home, rather than with reference to the
easiest way of providing a revenue for the necessities of the govern
ment. Revenue, indeed, needed no consideration, provided the tariff
was so adjusted that the price of all foreign manufactures should
be made sufficiently high to give a large profit to the domestic com
petition, but not so high as to prohibit importation.
The South had already changed her mind upon this subject. It
had become evident that slave-labor could only be used in the rudest
kind of manual industry ; intelligent artisans could not be made from
a people whose only incentive to diligence was the lash, and the im
parting to whom even a knowledge of the alphabet was a penal
offence by statute. The Federal Government had, in the Southern
mind, only one reason for being — to protect slavery and enlarge the
area for the cultivation of its coarse products. To develop those
varied industries to which the labor of freemen only could be profita
bly applied, was an iniquitous policy if it enhanced the price of negro-
cloth and cotton bagging. New England still adhered to the doctrine
of free trade, partly because the larger portion of her capital still
remained invested in foreign commerce, and partly because she be
lieved her infant manufactures would develop into as healthy a growth
as they were capable of, without any legislative nursing. But the
1 The jealousies of rival candidates greatly disturbed the harmony of the Cabinet. The
more earnestly Mr. Monroe strove to maintain an attitude of perfect neutrality, the more
he was suspected by at least one of his secretaries — Crawford, — perhaps by more than
one, of partisanship. The significance of an anecdote told by Mr. Adams in his Diary is
a curious evidence of this alienation between the President and the Secretary of the Treas
ury, due partly to Crawford's resentment on this subject, lie had waited upon the Presi
dent to ask for certain appointments to office among his followers, to which Mr. Monroe,
on good grounds no doubt, objected. The Secretary's reply was so disrespectful as to call
for rebuke. Whereupon — relates Mr. Adams — " Crawford, turning to him, raised his cane,
as in the attitude to strike, and said, 'You damned, infernal old scoundrel! ' Mr. Mon
roe seized the tongs at the fire-place for self-defence, applied a retaliatory epithet to Craw
ford, and told him he would immediately ring for servants himself, and turn him out of the
house ; upon which Crawford, beginning to recover himself, said he did not intend, and had
not intended to insult him, and left the house. They never met afterwards." Mr. Adams
tells this story after his own election, on the authority of Samuel L. Southard, who had
received it from Monroe immediately after the occurrence. The writer adds, " If I had
known it at the time, I should not have invited Mr. Crawford to remain in the Treasury
Department." To that invitation, Monroe, when consulted, had made no objection.
1823.] THE MONROE DOCTRINE. 279
Western and Middle States, with a few votes from other parts of the
country, were strong enough to give to the new tariff-bill a small
majority. From that time the imposition of protective duties marked
the dividing-line between political parties, and the tariff policy
thenceforth lost, in a great degree, the character of a scientific ques
tion, properly discussed only in the light of the invariable laws of
political economy.
To no act of his life was Monroe so indebted for the preservation
of his name from oblivion as to a passage in his annual ad- The Monroe
dress to Congress in 1823, announcing what has ever since *
been called " The Monroe Doctrine." The doctrine was not the less
excellent because it is so often supposed to be American international
law, or mistaken for a principle rather than an opinion ; nor is it
the less creditable to Monroe that it was first suggested to him by
his Secretary of State, Mr. Adams, and carefully discussed and ap
proved by every member of the Cabinet. Its annunciation was called
forth by a conjunction of circumstances which has never occurred
since and is never likely to occur again, and is therefore as little
applicable as the old Articles of Confederation are to the condition of
our time, or, probably, of any time to come.
But the declaration then had a peculiar fitness. The allied sov
ereigns of France, Russia, Prussia, and Austria had seen fit to re
store, in 1822, through the arms of France, to the Spanish King,
Ferdinand, those royal prerogatives of which he had been deprived
by the Cortes three years before. The Holy Alliance assumed thus
to check in Spain what was conceived to be a dangerous defiance of
the doctrine of the divine right of kings ; and succeeding in this first
measure, it was next proposed by Ferdinand that the Alliance should
aid him in reducing to obedience those revolted colonies of his in
America, which had not only thrown off their allegiance to him, but,
following the example of the United States, had resolved themselves
into independent republics.
It was to this condition of things that the declaration of Monroe
was addressed. In the war between Spain and her colonies the
United States, he said, had observed and should continue to observe,
the strictest neutrality. " But," he added, " with the Governments
who have declared their independence, and maintained it, and whose
independence we have, on great consideration, and on just principles,
acknowledged, we could not view any interposition for the purpose
of oppressing them, or controlling, in any other manner, their destiny,
by any European power, in any other light than as the manifestation
of an unfriendly disposition towards the United States.'' Hardly
less than this could be said, if anything was said at all, by the lead-
280 MONROE'S ADMINISTRATION. [CHAP. XI.
ing power among the republics of the Western hemisphere when
the possible interference of the Holy Alliance with those of South
America was contemplated ; and it was hardly possible to avoid saying
something, for England — disapproving from the beginning of all that
had been done by the allied sovereigns on behalf of Ferdinand — had
invited the United States to join with her in some effectual measure
for the protection of the independence of the new American repub
lics. The declaration was altogether cautious ; it might mean much
or it might mean little — a threat of armed resistance, or an expres
sion only of harmless and pacific sentiment ; what it really did mean
was the subject of long and hot debate in the first year of the next
administration, when Mr. Adams proposed to send ministers to a
congress of representatives of American states to assemble at Pan
ama. The President, in another paragraph of the same message, in
formed Congress that an agreement had been made with England
and with Russia to settle, by amicable negotiation, any question of
conflicting rights on the northwest coast. In the discussions upon
this subject it had been proper to assert, he said, as a principle, that
the American continents were " henceforth not to be considered as
subjects for future colonization by any European power." This also
is sometimes held to be a part of the Monroe Doctrine. But it
seems to have had no deeper meaning — considering it in connection
with the topic to which it specifically related — than that thereafter
it should be considered that the unsettled country within the acknowl
edged boundaries of American states was exclusively their own, and
not subject to foreign occupation. It certainly was no new doctrine,
though it might be proper to repeat it on such an occasion, that the
United States would always protect her own territory.
In the presidential election there was no choice by the Electoral
College. Adams received the popular vote of all New Eng-
Eloction of „ ,T iri . , . .
Adams as land, and a maioritv of that of New \ork, with a minority
President. , , T . . n TIT •
vote from Delaware, Maryland, Louisiana, and Illinois.
The popular vote in three of the Northern States, New Jersey,
Pennsylvania, and Indiana, was given to Jackson, and this, with
that of seven Southern States, gave him a majority in ten States.
The votes in other States were divided between Crawford and Clay,
and the election, therefore, was thrown into the House of Representa
tives, where a choice was to be made between the three highest can
didates, Jackson, Adams, and Crawford. Adams was elected by a
majority of the States voting by their delegations — thirteen. In
addition to those States whose votes he received in the Electoral Col
lege, he now received the three which had been given to Clay, two
which had been given to Jackson, and one which had been divided
1824.] ELECTION OF JOHX QUIXCY ADAMS. 281
in the choice of electors. Calhoun, whose name had been withdrawn
from the list of presidential candidates, had been already chosen
Vice-president in the Electoral College.
Jackson, who in the House had been voted for by seven States
only, had received a plurality in the vote for electors, both Political
as to States and as to the popular vote. There had been calumn>-
charges of a corrupt bargain between Adams and Clay, even before
the election. These charges were now pressed with added bitterness
when the States which had chosen Clay electors gave their votes for
Adams in the House, the Kentucky delegation disregarding the in
structions of the State Legislature, — as they had a perfect right to
do. But when Clay was appointed Secretary of State by the new
President, the act was considered, by the party in opposition, as con
clusive proof that the two highest offices in the Government had been
bought and sold. There was, hoAvever, no other evidence than these
circumstantial coincidences on which to found this partisan slander.
It was a slander, however, that did not easily die, and it played an im
portant part in the next presidential canvass. But it was always
met with the most positive and indignant denial by both the gentle
men accused, and by unquestionable proof of the avowred determina
tion of Clay, previous to the time of the alleged bargain, to use his
influence — if not available for his own election — on behalf of
Adams. One must have a very imperfect comprehension of Character of
the character of Adams to accept as true that which gives Adams-
the lie to every other act of his long and eventful life. He some
times erred in judgment ; and sometimes, like all other men that ever
lived, he committed acts of weakness ; but he was the wisest and
purest of the statesmen of the middle period of the first century of
the Union. He must look with distorted vision upon the career of
this remarkable man, who believes him capable of even entertaining
the thought of condescending to any political baseness under any pos
sible temptation.
CHAPTER XII.
ADAMS AND JACKSON.
THE ERA OF GOOD FEELING. — ADMINISTRATION OF JOHN QUINCT ADAMS. — THE
PROPOSED CONGRESS OF SOUTH AMERICAN STATES. — OPPOSITION OF THE SLAVE
HOLDERS. — POLITICAL EDUCATION, NORTH AND SOUTH. — A SOLID SOUTH. — IN
DIAN TROUBLES AND STATE SOVEREIGNTY IN GEORGIA. — THE TARIFF MADE A
SECTIONAL QUESTION. — THE BLACK HAWK WAR. — JACKSON'S CHARACTER, A-STD
HIS POPULARITY. — HE ESTABLISHES THE SYSTEM OF REMOVALS FROM OFFICE. —
THE EATON SCANDAL. — THE CONTEST OVER THE UNITED STATES BANK. — RE
ELECTION OF JACKSON. — ANTI-MASONRY. — NULLIFICATION. — PREPARATIONS FOR
WAR IN SOUTH CAROLINA. — THE COMPROMISE BILL. — THE PUBLIC LANDS. —
MATERIAL PROGRESS. — INCREASING USE OF STEAM POWER. — THE FIRST RAIL
ROADS. — EARLY MANUFACTURING.
THE administration of Monroe was a period of transition in which
Political ^ie °ld Pai>ty divisions upon questions having only a tem-
transition. porary interest gradually disappeared. But beneath the
apparent calm of the " era of good feeling " new parties were slowly
forming upon essentially radical principles, on the overthrow or es
tablishment of which must ultimately rest the stability of the Gov
ernment and the welfare of the people. Not that these differences
were at first distinctly seen or generally understood; but under the
force of circumstances — the increase of population ; the settlement of
new country ; the increase of material prosperity ; the new applica
tions of industry ; the greater earnestness of the struggle for politi
cal power between the two systems of society, one resting on the
rights of freemen, the other on the privileges of the holders of slaves
- parties took new and more positive forms. Nor was it that in
that process of growth either party was absolutely wrong or abso
lutely right, whether upon fundamental principles or upon questions
of temporary interest ; but that a marked division-line was drawn,
growing ever wider and deeper, leading at last to a dissolution of the
Union and to civil war. That dividing-line even civil war and the
reconstruction of the Union has not yet obliterated.
On the accession of Adams to the Presidency, parties were reor-
Accession of ganized, on the single question at first, of supporting or op
posing his Administration. On the surface there was appar
ent, for the moment, no other cause of political difference than whether
1825.]
PROPOSED SOUTH AMERICAN CONGRESS.
283
he should be reflected or whether he should be succeeded by Jackson
or Calhoun. That, indeed, was comprehensive enough, for the real
question was the old one of a Northern or a Southern President. The
opposition to Adams at once drew together the party composed mainly
of Southern slaveholders, which, with a sufficient Northern alliance,
has been able, with occasional interludes, to maintain always the po
litical ascendency under whatever party name. To the support of the
Administration, on the other hand, rallied that instinctive antagonism
to a slaveholding Democratic party, which survived as a living prin
ciple, often feeble, its existence often denied, or not recognized, but
still always active in various political organizations, whether known
as National Republican, or Whig, or finally as the Republican party.
The Adams Mansion, Quincy, Mass.
Mr. Adams, in his first message to Congress, presented an oppor
tunity for concerted opposition which was instantly seized
, ., ,, • -c f 1 i. The South
upon ; and it was the more significant ot how earnest that American
opposition was to be, that there was, on his part, no inten
tional provocation. The South American states had agreed to hold
a Congress at Panama, the purpose of which was to consider their
relations to each other and to foreign states, political and commercial,
and the expediency of a league among themselves. In this Con
gress the United States had been invited to be represented, and Mr.
Adams announced that the invitation had been accepted, and that
ministers would be sent to take part in the deliberations, " so far as
may be compatible with that neutrality from which it is neither our
284 ADAMS AND JACKSON. [CIIAI-. XII.
intention, nor the desire of the other American States, that we should
depart." As the mission would involve the United States in no al
liance with these South American states without the assent of the
President and Senate, while it gave the ministers who should attend
the Congress the opportunity of understanding and of influencing its
purposes, no harm, at least, could come of the President's decision.
Had the decision been otherwise, there would have been quite as
much reason for hostile criticism, and it would have been seized upon
with equal eagerness, probably, to oppose the Administration.
The papers relating to the subject were sent confidentially to the
Senate, and considered in secret session. It was determined, obviously
for the influence that might be exercised upon the popular mind, that
the debates and the documents should be made public. The Presi
dent was asked if the removal of the injunction of secrecy would be
injurious to any pending negotiations. A negative answer was ex
pected, as no negotiation was pending. But Mr. Adams was too wary
a man to be entrapped into any assumption of a responsibility which
did not belong, to him, but which the Senate proposed to throw from
their own shoulders upon his. His reply was, that that body was the
best judge of how their proceedings should be conducted. Here was
new cause for complaint, and the answer was denounced as little else
than insolent. It had to be accepted, however, and the Senate opened
the doors which the President declined to open for them.
What the character of the debate should be — what it was that
Randolph the people were to be called upon to listen to — was settled
sblvery116 beforehand. A Virginia Senator sounded the key-note.
There was often method in the madness of that political
mountebank, John Randolph ; as he himself once said in debate with
a Congressman who had been a carpenter, he " knew a hawk from a
handsaw." Before the Senate determined to discuss the Panama mis
sion with open doors, he moved a resolution — which could only be
meant to be laid on the table, and was laid on the table, with his con
sent, when his speech upon it was finished — that the President be
requested to give the Senate any information in his possession, " touch
ing the principles and practice of the Spanish American states, or
any of them, late colonies of old Spain, in regard to negro slavery."
That the President could have any information to give upon such a
subject that was not open to all the rest of the world as well, neither
Randolph nor any other member of the Senate could suppose for a
moment. The Spanish American states, like the United States,
professed a belief in the natural right of all men to liberty ; and
their practice — unlike that of the United States — was in accord
ance with their principles, and had been to sweep negro slavery, so
1825.] OPPOSITION OF THE SLAVEHOLDERS. 285
far as they could, from off the face of the earth. But the object
of the resolution was gained when Randolph, in a characteristic
speech, denounced the proposal to send representatives to a Congress
of those foreign states who had set the pernicious example of giving
freedom to negroes ; where the black Republic of Hayti might be rec
ognized ; where the independence of Cuba, so dangerously near to our
own shores, and the possible emancipation of her slaves, might be dis
cussed. To send representatives to such a Congress was to touch
slavery, and slavery must be " let alone." That it would not be let
alone, Randolph said, was "a great danger — a danger that has in
creased, is increasing, and must be diminished, or it must come to its
regular catastrophe ; " and therefore the consideration of all other in
terests which the United States might have in common with the
South American republics must be put aside that slavery be pro
tected from the danger even of discussion by foreigners in the pres
ence of Federal representatives.
For nearly the whole session the Panama Congress was debated in
the Senate under one or another pretext ; it came before the Tho Monroe
House on the question of an appropriation, and a large por- doctnne-
tion of the time was given to it there from January to April. That
the neutrality of the United States might be jeoparded by the official
recognition of the Congress, was urged as one reason for rejecting the
nominations of the President ; but, inasmuch as it was expressly pro
vided that such neutrality should remain intact, that argument had
little weight. The attack on the Administration was pressed with
much more Vigor on the proper interpretation of " The Monroe Doc
trine." A meaning was given to it, it was declared, which its terms
did not warrant, by the assurance of Mr. Poinsett, the Minister to
Mexico, sanctioned apparently by Mr. Clay, the Secretary of State,
that in that declaration a pledge of protection was made to the South
American states in the event of European aggression. It was de
nied, and the denial generally accepted, that " The Monroe Doctrine "
was meant to convey an assurance so dangerous to the future peace of
the country.
But all this was, for the most part, a skirmish of words. The
question more important than all others was the question of slavery,
and on this the debate was in dead earnest. A Congress of American
nations, some of whom believed in the right of all men to liberty ; a
Congress that would recognize Hayti as a sister republic ; a Congress
that might lead to the independence of Cuba and Porto Rico, and to
the emancipation of their slaves, was not a body in which the United
States should be represented. The one interest in the United States,
absorbing and supreme, was the interest of slavery. It must govern
286 ADAMS AND JACKSON. [CHAP. XII.
in the foreign relations of the Government, as it was meant it should
govern at home.
To enforce this doctrine was the object of the debate ; the Congress
itself was only a secondary matter. The South has always under
stood the importance of political education, and the necessity of in
culcating great primary principles. These were, that the
Political ed- < ' r .
ucatiou of true foundation of democratic government was negro slav-
the South.
ery ; that the supreme power should rest in the hands of a
few thousand white men — generally about one per cent, of the
whole population of the country — by virtue of their ownership of
negro slaves ; that the highest and most imperative function of the
Constitution and the Union was the support of a government so
constituted ; and that the Union must cease to exist the moment the
Federal Government was perverted from that end, and the sanctity
and peace of slavery were imperilled. From generation to genera
tion the young men of the South have sat at the feet of their proph
ets to learn this lesson. The divine right of kings was never enforced,
even when taught as an article of religious faith, with the earnest
ness that the cognate doctrine was enforced at the South. But there
was no political education to answer to this in the North. The
strength of firm convictions and abiding faith, on the one hand, was
met with hesitation and doubt on the other. The South believed
in slavery with its whole soul, and knew what it wanted ; the North
was not quite sure whether it believed in it or not, and was by no
means certain of what it was that the South was aiming at.
When enough had been said in both Houses to show, as had been
so often shown before, and would be so often shown again, that
slavery must never be meddled with, but that all moral and political
forces must be bent to its support, the nomination of the delegates
to Panama was confirmed, and the appropriation made. In itself
the act was of no consequence, for the Congress never met. But
some of the Southern senators were quite willing that the delegates
should be appointed, if instructed to use their influence as repre
sentatives of the United States to prevent the recognition of Hayti,
and arrest any movement in aid of the independence of Cuba. In
reality there was no anxiety on either point. There could be no
misconception of the position of the Government, as represented by
the Secretary of State. Mr. Clay had earnestly urged the interven-
ciay'sposi- tion °^ Russia with Spain, to induce her to recognize the
independence of her late colonies, that she might retain
Cuba ; and he had persuaded those colonies to delay any movement
against Cuba, in the hope that recognition would leave that island
and Porto Rico in the possession of Spain. Mr. Clay was an enthu-
1825.]
SOLID SOUTH."
287
siast in the cause of liberty in South America ; nor did he stop to
ask what races — white, black, or copper-colored, pure or mixed —
might enjoy that liberty in those far-off countries. But his enthusi
asm was under perfect control, and the new republics were made to
understand that no pernicious example of the abolition of slavery
was to be tolerated so near the United States as in Cuba. Nor was
there the slightest reason to suppose that the Government under
Mr. Adams would interfere with slavery ; but with that wise fore
thought which the South
never lost sight of, the op
portunity was seized to set
forth by months of debate
the radical doctrine that the
Union only existed for the
support of slavery, and that
when it ceased to do that
it must cease to exist.
The Republic was al
ready nearly a half cen
tury old, and once before
there had been a Northern
President, and he chosen
against the will of the
South. In this fact there
was danger, and it was
time to rally a " solid
South " in an opposition
party. Innovations must
be met at the outset. " I will cry out obsta principiis" said Ran
dolph. In this first encounter with a Northern Executive, v golid
he said, " The step you are about to take is a match " — south.
to so much gunpowder — " enough to blow, — not the first of the
Stuarts — but the last of another dynasty, — sky-high — sky-high."
And Hayne replied, that when " the policy of that portion of the
Union [the South] should be called in question, or their safety endan
gered, .... the whole South will be as one man.'1
The doctrine of State Rights — however precious and true it may
be when rightly interpreted in a union of really free
. . . ITT? • • Indian trou-
States — meant nothing 111 this slaveholders organization
but the supremacy of slave States. Georgia soon made this
manifest in her conduct in regard to the Indians still within her
boundaries. A condition of the cession of her western territory to
the Federal Government w.as, that the title to the Indian lands
Georgia.
288 ADAMS AND JACKSON.' [CHAP. XII.
should be acquired by the United States and transferred to her. The
Government Avas willing to redeem this promise ; but it had been
long deferred because of the unwillingness of the Creeks and Cher-
okees to part with their land. A council of Creek chiefs resolved,
as firmly as men could resolve, not to sell a foot, and to visit the
penalty of death upon any chiefs who should disregard the resolution.
Commissioners were appointed, and in 1825 they concluded a treaty
with Mclntosh and some other chiefs at Indian Springs, by which
the lands were conveyed to the United States ; and thereupon the
Creeks made good their word by putting the signers of the treaty
to death. The State of Georgia meanwhile had ordered a survey of
the territory occupied by the Indians, and if this were carried out
a conflict between the surveyors and the Indians was inevitable.
The treaty, which had been ratified by the Senate and the Presi
dent, continued the Creeks in possession till September 1, 1826, and
there could be 110 color of right under the treaty even, much less out
side of it, for interference by Georgia. But the Governor, George M.
Troup, assumed at once a position which ignored laws and treaties,
Beginning anc^ rested upon the title of a sovereign State. In his cor-
Rights CM- respondence with the Government, he assumed in the bald
est and boldest language the independence of Georgia, and
insolently informed the President that the survey would go on. The
Governor professed to see in the attitude of the Government a secret
hostility to slavery, and called upon the Legislature to act in self-
defence.1 A committee of the Legislature reported, in very tem
pestuous language, that the time had come for united action on the
part of the South in resistance to the Federal Government.
A long discussion then ensued, between the Governor on the one
side and General Gaines, who had been sent to Georgia to keep the
peace, and the Secretary of War, on the other. The President was
firm, and near the end of July, 1825, he instructed the Secretary
of War to write to the Governor that, pending a new consideration
of the treaty by Congress, the terms of the recent treaty were such
as to forbid the survey. " I am, therefore,1' writes the Secretary,
1 " Soon, very soon, therefore," said Governor Trotip, " the United States Government,
discarding the mask, will openly lend itself to a combination of fanatics for the destruc
tion of everything valuable in the Southern country ; one movement of the Congress, 1111-
resisted by you, and all is lost. Temporize no longer ; make known your resolution that
this subject shall not be touched by them but at their peril. But for its sacred guarantee
by the Constitution, we never would have become parties to that instrument. At this
moment you would not make yourselves parties to any constitution without it. Of course
you will not be a party to it from the moment the General Government shall make that
movement. If this matter be an evil, it is our own ; if it be a sin, we can implore the for
giveness of it ; to remove it, we ask not either their sympathy or assistance ; it may be our
physical weakness — it is our moral strength." — Nilfs's Register, xxviii. 240.
l.s^r.J STATE SOVEREIGNTY IN GEORGIA. 289
"directed by the President to state distinctly to your Excellency
that, for the present, he will not permit such entry or survey to be
made." A new treaty was negotiated at Washington, and new cause
of complaint loudly declared in Georgia. Troup, who had been re-
elected Governor b}r a bare majority, again ordered surveys upon the
basis of the former treaty. The Indians appealed to Adams, who pre
sented the whole subject afresh to Congress. The message, throw
ing the burden, upon Congress, was a clear statement of the case ; but
the people were not prepared to test the relative authority of Union
and State. The interests involved were of little moment to the peo
ple at large. The dispute \vas only over a tribe of Indians who
blocked the way. The President was expected to maintain treaty
obligations, but no authority was given him by Congress to assert
the authority and dignity of the Federal Government when it in
volved direct collision with a State. A let-alone policy was accepted ;
Georgia triumphed, and the Administration and the Indians went to
the wall.
The advantage gained over the Creeks wras repeated immediately
in a contest with the Clierokees, which lasted from 1826 to 1837.
By a series of enactments the Georgia Legislature* pressed hard upon
the unfortunate Indians. The authority of the State was extended
over the entire territory, and was so exercised as to make life in
Georgia unendurable to the Cherokees. The missionaries living
among them were treated as felons, and the longer the Indians pre
sented a passive resistance the more malignant was the persecution
visited upon them. The State, having once secured its position be
fore a temporizing Congress, resisted effectively every attempt on be
half of the Indians. When Jackson succeeded Adams, he declared
officially to the Cherokees that they had no choice except to obey the
laws of the State or " to remove, and, by associating with your
brothers beyond the Mississippi, to become again united as one na
tion ; " but the declaration ignored the fact that the Cherokees were
still a nation, by treaty, with the United States : it yielded the
whole question to Georgia.
The Indians appealed to the United States Supreme Court, and
William Wirt, the ex-Attorney-general, appeared on their behalf.
But here the anomalous political position of the Cherokees confronted
the judges, and, as interpreters of the law, they were obliged to give
a decision contrary to their own sense of justice. In the complaint,
the Cherokees had been described as a foreign state, having adopted
a constitution for their own government : but as such they could not
bring a case before the Federal courts. But Chief Justice Marshall,
in rendering the decision, said, " So much of the argument as was in-
VOL. iv. 19
290 ADAMS AND JACKSON. [€JIAI>. XII.
tended to prove the character of the Cherokees as a state, as a dis
tinct political society, separated from others, capable of managing its
own affairs, and governing itself, has, in the opinion of the majority
of the judges, been completely successful. They have been uni
formly treated as a state from the settlement of our country. The
acts of our Government plainly recognize the Cherokee nation as a
state, and the courts are bound by those acts."
The Court soon came into more direct conflict with the State on a
question of jurisdiction, and both Governor and Legislature treated
the order of the Supreme Court as an interference with the rights of
Georgia, and paid no heed to it. Another occasion arose later still,
The case of wlien a Presbyterian minister, named Worcester, was con-
ttorcester. Jemned to four years' imprisonment at hard labor for the
crime of remaining in the territory with a dying wife beyond the ten
days allowed him for leaving. The case of Worcester was appealed
to the Supreme Court, and the act of the State of Georgia was de
clared void. Nevertheless, the State court paid no attention to the
decision, and Clayton, of Georgia, in the House of Representatives,
said that " before the decree of the Supreme Court should be carried
into execution, Georgia should be made a wilderness." The country
was stirred to indignation, but rather at Georgia's inhumanity than
at her rebellion against the Union, and it was found convenient by
the Federal Government to avoid a crisis on behalf of the Indians.
Thus through two administrations the Federal Government was
defied by a single State ; the doctrine of State Rights, as it was un
derstood at the South, was carried to its legitimate conclusion ; and
Georgia assumed, and proved herself, to be as absolutely independent
of and above the authority and laws of the Union, where her special
interests were concerned, as if the Union had ceased to exist. The
controversy was upon too remote an interest to alarm the North as to
its real character ; nor has the sense of justice and humanity toward
the Indian ever been so keen that the cruelty visited upon the Creeks
should, at that time, arouse the sympathies of the country on behalf
of that unhappy people. But the conduct of Georgia was sustained,
directly or indirectly, by her sister States of the South, and her suc
cess rejoiced in as a complete and triumphant assertion of the South
ern policy. There was no long time to wait before another struggle,
with essentially the same result.
The question of the tariff was becoming more and more a sectional
question. The breach between North and South was wid-
a sectional eiied as the inevitable antagonism between free labor and
slave labor was made more manifest by the protective pol
icy. The recuperative power of the North was irrepressible. She
18-28.] THE TARIFF A SECTIONAL QUESTION. 291
grew rich and prosperous, whether, under free trade, her energies
were devoted to agriculture and commerce, or whether, under a pro
tective tariff, her capital and labor were forced into the development
of manufacturing interests. It was just the reverse at the South.
Slavery and prosperity were incompatible, and while the North flour
ished under either free trade or tariff, the South grew poor un
der both. All the North asked for was a steady ami uniform pol
icy ; she also wanted to be u let alone." But the South, which had
first established the protective policy for her own supposed advan
tage, now demanded a return to free trade for the same reason. The
North, she believed, gained by her loss, for she could not under
stand that the North could accommodate herself to any policy be
cause her labor was free, but that there could be no like prosperity
at the South because her laborers were slaves. It was certainly true
that the cheaper everything else was, the greater was the value of
a crop of cotton or tobacco. To sell it at the highest possible price,
and to buy in return all that was needed on a plantation at the
cheapest, was a very simple problem in political economy. But there
were other terms to the problem ; the North, against her will, had
been compelled to invest her capital and labor in a variety of in
dustries, and she demanded that as legislation had put her in that
position, legislation should protect her. It was not a question of po
litical economy betw.een the two sections of the Union, whatever it
might be in the abstract; but whether the ability in capital and
industry in one portion of the country should be directed and con
trolled by the inability in both of the other portion. But cotton was
king, and kings are not necessarily held to reason.
The tariff of 1828 was a more comprehensive measure, and more
distinctly adjusted to encourage American industry than any previ
ously enacted. All New England and most of the Middle and West
ern States were now united on this subject, and in 1827 a large
National Convention of Protectionists was held at Harrisburg to con
sider their various interests and to influence legislation. The number
of articles — wool, iron, lead, hemp, distilled spirits, and others of
smaller general importance — demanding protection was increased.
The question was made, more positively than had been done four
years before, one of party politics.
It only influenced, however, without governing parties, for there
were protectionists who voted for Jackson, though there were no
anti-protectionists who voted for Adams. At the present rh.,rat.t(,,. ot
time, with the general diffusion of information and the Ja<>k!i011-
rapid communication between the different parts of the country, the
people usually have a pretty clear understanding of the character of
292
ADAMS AND JACKSON.
[C'HAl-. XII.
presidental candidates, when, as still sometimes happens, there are
candidates who have any characters to be understood. Hut it is not
to be wondered at that fifty years ago Jackson was voted for in dif
ferent parts of the Union for precisely opposite reasons.
It seems, at first sight, difficult to find in (Jeneral Jackson's per-
1828.]
JACKSON'S CHARACTER.
293
sonal qualities the cause of his great popularity. He was neither a
wise nor a good man, and in many respects lie was both a foolish and
Southern Industry.
a bad one. He was not only illiterate — which may be a misfortune
without being a fault — but ignorant; he was easily provoked to
anger, and his rage was not only cruel but uncontrollable; in temper
294 ADAMS AND JACKSON. [CHAP. XII.
he was as despotic as he was fearless, and lie was as free from scruples
as he was without fear. As a brave and successful soldier, he was
known to the people ; if he was capable also of strong domestic at
tachments and of warm friendships, which — no doubt truly — is al
leged of him, that could have had little to do with his popularity, as it
could not be generally known. The worst and the largest side of him
is that which for thirty years was presented to the public, and either
because of it or in spite of it, the larger number of the people admired
and honored him. But that large part — at least in his first election
— was from the Southern States, and his popularity there is easily ac
counted for. The strong points in his character were precisely those
engendered and developed in the mastership of a gang of negro slaves,
and the education of the plantation. "The whole commerce between
master and slave," said Jefferson, "is a perpetual exercise of the most
boisterous passions ; the most unremitting despotism on the one part,
and degrading submissions on the other The parent storms,
the child looks on, catches the lineaments of wrath, puts on the same
airs in the circle of smaller slaves, gives loose to his worst passions,
and thus nursed, educated, and daily exercised in tyranny, cannot but
be stamped by it with odious peculiarities. The man must be a prod
igy wno can retain his manners and morals undepraved by such cir
cumstances/' An education of this sort had in Jackson been
Reasons for ... ... • r* -i i -i • i • • i
his popular- rounded and intensified by his long experience in the pecul
iar warfare carried on against the Indian tribes of the South.
The slaveholders saw in him a magnified reflection of themselves,
and they admired and esteemed him accordingly. That his popular
ity should have extended subsequently to the North, admits of some
thing of the same explanation. As a result of " the most boisterous
passions " engendered by- slavery, Jefferson deduces " degrading sub
missions," as well as " unremitting despotism." There has been
always a singular servility in the character of a portion of the Ameri
can people. In that class the slaveholder has always found his
Northern servitor. Randolph first gave it a name to live by in the
term " doughface." It always loves to recognize a master, as the
slave is always most abject under the lash that cuts the keenest and
oftenest. It was this class that loved Jackson simply because they
saw a master in his despotic will, which no scruple ever controlled.
Besides this, there was that other weakness of the American charac
ter which lias so much to answer for — the capacity of being aroused
to an irrepressible enthusiasm on the most factitious pretexts, and of
raising the most ordinary mortals to immortality with shouts so fran
tic that they come at length to be believed sincere.
It was during the closing years of Adams's administration that the
1832.] THE BLACK HAWK WAR. 295
last serious Indian war occurred within the borders of the present
northwestern States. In 1830^ a treaty was made with the TiieBiack
tribes of Sacs and Foxes, by which their lands in Illinois 1Iawkwar-
were ceded to the United States. They were nevertheless unwilling
to leave their country, and Governor Reynolds, of Illinois, called out
a militia force to remove them beyond the Mississippi. Black Hawk,
a chief of the Sacs, then about sixty years of age, refused submission,
and the next year returned with a small force. He was driven back
by the troops at Rock Island, but in March, 1832, he reappeared, at
the head of about a thousand warriors, — Sacs, Foxes, and Winne-
bagos, — and penetrated into the Rock River valley, declaring that
he came only to plant corn. But either he would not or could not
restrain his followers, and the devastation of Indian warfare soon
spread among the frontier settlements. Farms were laid waste, farm
houses given to the names, and their occupants put to death. The
force at Rock Island was sent out to stay these ravages, and Generals
Scott and Atkinson ' ordered from Buffalo with a reenforcement,
which on the way was greatly diminished by cholera and desertions.
The Governor of Illinois called for volunteers, and an effective force
of about twenty-four hundred men was soon marched against the
enemy. Black Hawk's band fled before it. General Whiteside, who
was in command, burned the Prophet's Town, on Rock River, and
pursued the Indians up that stream. But his advance under Major
Still man was led into ambush at a point about twenty miles from the
present town of Dixoii, and defeated. The Indians were overtaken
and badly defeated on Wisconsin River ; and the survivors, still re
treating northward, were again overtaken near Bad Axe River, on
the left bank of the Mississippi. Here Black Hawk attempted to get
his main body across the Mississippi, himself and twenty warriors
forming a rear-guard to make a show of force and keep the pursuers
at bay. But his movements were understood, the rear-guard soon
driven in to the main body, and that was surrounded. Many of the
Indians were shot in the water' while trying to swim the stream :
others were killed on a little island where they sought refuge. Only
about fifty prisoners were taken, and most of these were squaws and
children. The dispersion was complete, and the war was soon closed
by the surrender or capture of Black Hawk, Keokuk, and other
chiefs. Many persons are still living who can remember the melan
choly progress of these warriors on their way to Washington to ac
knowledge their subjection.
In the presidential election of 1828 the Northern dynasty was
blown, as Randolph said it should be, " sky-high — sky-high." Adams
received the electoral vote of New England, of Delaware, and a por-
•296
ADAMS AND JACKSOX.
[CHAP. XII.
tion of that of Maryland. All the rest were given to Jackson, mak-
Eiection of m& a total of one hundred and seventy-eight electoral votes
jack«,u. £Q Adams's eighty-three. There was at least one man in
the country who was not surprised at this result; Adams had ex
pected it, and had prepared, though with great reluctance, to retire
to private life. Calhoun was again elected to the vice-presidency.
At the inaugural ceremonies in the following March, a larger crowd
assembled at Washington from all parts of the country than had ever
Battle of Bad Axe.
before come together on a similar occasion. Mr. Adams was con
spicuous by his absence, — a fact commented upon then, and remem
bered ever since against him, by those who, perhaps, did not know
that the incoming President had carefully abstained from showing
him, before the inauguration, the usual courtesies due to the retiring
chief magistrate. The matter was considered of sufficient impor
tance for Mr. Adams to seek counsel from his friends, and to be
guided by their advice.1
1 The excuse made for Jackson in Partou's Life of Jai-kxoti — that he took this method
1829.] THE SYSTEM OF REMOVALS ESTABLISHED. 297
The inaugural address rather surprised both parties, and disap
pointed those who expected a condemnation of the tariff. ilisjnaugu.
On that subject it was moderate enough to encourage the raladdres-s
protectionists to hope that the established policy would not be med
dled with. Upon the necessity of reform — that much-abused word
in American politics — the address was pronounced and emphatic.
In saying that a " correction of those abuses that have brought the
patronage of the Federal Government into conflict with the freedom
of elections " was required, nothing was meant, probably, but a re
flection upon the preceding Administration. It was a rash charge to
make, however, for whatever other political sins might be attributed
to Mr. Adams, that of an undue use of patronage was certainly the
one of which he was absolutely innocent. Jackson had, indeed, dis
tinguished himself years before, by urging Monroe to disregard party
in the choice of his secretaries ; and, when in the United States Sen
ate, he had proposed an amendment to the Constitution forbidding
the appointment of members of Congress to any office whatever, ex
cept upon the bench. However unjust, then, the implied accusation
against Mr. Adams might be, it was assumed that the President really
meant to lay down a rule for himself. The country had not to wait
a month to see how ludicrous the word reform was in his mouth.
Members of his Cabinet were taken from the Senate and the House,
and it was soon understood that not to have been in favor IIecstab.
of his election was to be held as forfeiture of office, that gy^c^of
places might be given as a reward to his active partisans. removals-
Jn the forty years of previous administrations there had been sev
enty-three removals ; Jackson removed a larger number in the first
month of his administration. Before the year was out, six hundred
and ninety of his partisans were rewarded with places made vacant
for them, and these, in their turn, punished and rewarded hundreds
more of subordinates.1 The character of the government was com
pletely changed by the introduction of this new system of the tenure
of office ; an element of corruption was introduced, for which no
remedy has yet been found ; and an injury done to the morals of
the people, and to the cause of republican government, so monstrous
that it would have been better had Andrew Jackson never been
born. It was this partisan spirit that distinguished his adminis
tration for eight years, and made it, though in some things excel-
ot' showing his resentment at some reflections made upon his wife, in a newspaper supposed
to be the political organ of the Administration in Washington — onlv shows, if true, how
incapable Jackson was of discretion where his feelings or his passions were concerned.
1 Washington made nine removals from office ; John Adams, nine ; Jefferson, thirty-nine ;
Madison, five ; Monroe, nine ; John Qtiinev Adams, two ; Jackson made, and caused to be
made, probably not less than two thousand.
298
JACKSON.
[CHAP. XII.
His Cabinet.
lent, of so evil example. He esteemed himself not a part of the
State, but the State. In one week he vetoed more bills sent him by
Congress than all his predecessors had vetoed in forty years.
Martin Van Buren was his Secretary of State ; the rest of his
Cabinet, excepting John M. Berrien, the Attorney-general,
were men who left no mark upon their time. His "Kitchen
Cabinet," as it was called in the slang of the day — William B.
Lewis, Duff Green.
Amos Kendall, and
Isaac Hill — were
the advisers and
confidants of the
head of the State.
The official Cabinet
wa s scattered, or
scattered itself, be
fore the end of the
first term, moved
thereto by a per
sonal scandal which
i Jackson wanted the
dignity and deli
cacy to s m o t h e r,
but insisted instead
upon forcing upon
the public. It oc
cupied too i m p o r-
tant a place in the political history of those years to be forgotten.
John H. Eaton, the Secretary of War, had married a Mrs. Timber-
The Eaton lake, who, it was said, had been his mistress while her first
scandal. husband was living. Whether this was true or not, it was
believed, and it is certain that the woman was of bad reputation be
fore Eaton married her. The families of other members of the Gov
ernment, and those of foreign Ministers, as well as those of the better
class of people generally in Washington, refused to recognize or admit
her to their houses. There was a touch of chivalry in the impetu
osity and passion with which Jackson came to the defence of this
woman. From the same remarkable incapacity of weighing testi
mony which he showed on other occasions, he assumed this case to be
parallel to his own ; and by the zeal with which he defended an
apparently indefensible cause, acknowledged, in the minds of many
people, the justice of the charges that had long been brought against
himself and his own wife. Eaton, it is true, was his personal friend,
The Hermitage — Residence of General Jackson.
18-Jtf.] THE EATON SCANDAL. 299
ami Mrs. Timberlake and her family bad long been known to him.
But it would be doing him great injustice to suppose that there was
no deeper influence than ordinary friendship, no other impulse at
work than headlong obstinacy, to impel him to a course of conduct
which so controlled the first three years of his administration. The
defence of Mrs. Eaton was the defence of his own wife, dead not
many weeks, and mourned with a passionate sorrow. There was
really no parallel in the two cases, nor could Jackson see that it was
lie who was reflecting upon the memory of his dead wife by admitting
any possible similarity. When, nearly forty years before, he had
married, she was, as both believed, fully divorced from a former hus
band. When this was found to be a mistake, the proper legal steps
were taken, and they were married again. Years afterward this
perfectly innocent error was seized upon and tortured by political
malice into a cruel scandal ; and it seemed to him a sort of vindication
of the memory of his wife, and a righteous resentment for what she
had been made to suffer, to defend another woman who seemed to
him visited with similar injustice. It did not occur to him that in
inviting comparison he was confessing judgment.
Moved by such an impulse, his pertinacity and violence on this
topic are less to be wondered at, and even from one view to be ap
plauded. It was characteristic of the man, however, that he should
permit this purely personal feeling to override all other considerations.
He might have conceded so much to an almost universal belief as to
have consented that his public conduct should not be governed by his
private opinion. But to this his impei'ious temper could never con
sent. Harmony in his Cabinet meant that the wives of his secreta
ries should open their doors to Mrs. Eaton. Because they would not
submit to this interference with their domestic relations, and yield
their sense of decency and of moral obligation to his dictation, Cab
inet meetings became less and less frequent, were at length given up
altogether, and finally the Cabinet was broken up, in part, at least,
from this want of harmony. He threatened to dismiss a foreign
minister whose wife declined to recognize Mrs. Eaton ; he sent Mrs.
Donelson and her husband — his nephew and secretary — who resided
with him in the presidential mansion, back to Tennessee, because she
declined to receive Mrs. Eaton ; and he was almost beside himself
with imbecile rage when, in those private parlors where he had pro
cured her admission, the ladies of Washington retired from before her
as if her presence were a contamination. Jackson was himself, undoubt
edly, as chaste as a virtuous woman ; but it was, nevertheless, through
the overbearing self-will of this man that the simplicity and purity of
a republican Administration was, for the first time, and so far for the
300 JACKSON. [CHAP. XII.
last, smirched with the scandalous intrigues that in earlier times dis
tinguished the courts of monarchs.
The President's hostility to the United States Bank, which dis-
The United tinguished his first term of office, and had more to do, prob-
stutes Bank, afoiy^ than anything else with his reelection, showed itself in
his first message. As the Bank would soon ask for a renewal of its
charter, which would expire in 183(3, he called the attention of Con
gress to the constitutionality and expediency of the law creating it.
It had failed, he said, in establishing a sound and uniform currency,
and he suggested that a National Bank, founded upon the credit and
revenues of the Government, might be devised which would be con
stitutional, and be beneficial to the finances of the country.
It was the beginning of a long struggle which convulsed the coun
try as long as it lasted. That its final result was beneficial, was not
long doubted after the party passion the encounter excited had sub
sided ; nor is it incredible that the motives of Jackson's hostility were
what he professed they were, though their first impulse may have
been purely personal. Certain it is that those private counsellors of
liis who were soon known as the '-Kitchen Cabinet" had already had
an encounter with the officers of the Bank, and to this is usually
traced the immediate hostility of the Administration. In the sum
mer of that year, 1829, an attempt was made to remove the President,
Jonathan Mason, of the branch bank at Portsmouth, N. H. Com
plaints were made of its management by Isaac Hill and Levi Wood-
bury, both active politicians and warm friends of the Administration
in that State. Ingham, the Secretary of the Treasury, held a long
correspondence with Nicholas Biddle, President of the parent bank,
at the conclusion of which the Bank firmly and with some asperity
declared its intention to pursue a course entirely independent of polit
ical dictation. As the appointments were in the hands of the Direct
ors, the victory was for the time complete. But it was a victory
which aimed a direct blow at Jackson, and from that time, till he
was able to strike a fatal blow in return, he continued in successive
messages to pi-ess the subject upon the attention of Congress.
The Bank was accused meanwhile of using its means and its in
fluence to bring the question of a re-charter within the arena of party
politics. It became, at any rate, a party question in the canvass for
the next presidential election, the Clay party hoping to defeat the
Jackson party either by procuring the re-charter of the Bank by Con
gress, or by an appeal to the country should that attempt fail. In the
session of 1832 the Bank asked that its charter be renewed, and an
act was passed by large majorities; but when the President vetoed
the bill, there was not a two-thirds vote in the Senate to sustain its
1832.] THE UNITED STATES HAXK. 301
previous action, and the bill failed. At the beginning of the session
of 1832—33 the President expressed doubts of the solvency of the
Bank, and recommended the removal of the deposits of public money,
which, by the act incorporating the Bank, was subject to the order of
the Secretary of the Treasury, who was required to give to Congress
his reasons for removal. When Congress refused to authorize such
action, the President assumed the responsibility himself. Technically
he was free to do so, through the Secretary, and to give his reasons
afterward ; but the action of Congress upon his message was virtually
a refusal to sanction such a proceeding. Jackson's argument, reiter
ated in many forms, was that the Bank was buying up members of
Congress, and would obtain a two-thirds majority at the next session
unless he crippled it at once, and that as a matter of fact it was not
solvent. He read to his Cabinet a long paper on the subject, in which
he accused the officers of the Bank of the most flagrant mismanage
ment and corrupt practices, and concluded with the announcement
that he had fully determined upon the removal, and should assume
the entire responsibility. He sent Amos Kendall 011 a tour of inquiry
among the State banks, witli a proposition that certain of them should
receive the deposits, and give a combined guaranty for their safety.
The Bank made a, stubborn fight for its lite. The management
acknowledged that in four years it spent fifty-eight thousand dollars
in defending itself. On the floor of the Senate, Mr. Benton was tlje
representative of Jackson's enmity to the Bank, while its chief de
fenders were Mr. Dallas and Mr. Webster. Though nearly the whole
debate was confined to the question of the character and management
of this institution, strong objections had been urged from the first
against the existence of any United States Bank at all. Jackson had
opposed the scheme in Hamilton's day, being at that time a Senator
from Tennessee. The argument for a bank, briefly stated, was, that
it would give the country a uniform and comparatively stable cur
rency, — money that would pass a_t one value in every State of the
Union, making prices steady and business safe; while at the same
time, when an unusual amount was wanted in one section — as at the
West, when the crops were to be moved — the surplus of other sec
tions could, through a bank with branches in every State, be readily
drawn upon. The argument against it was, that to create such a cen
tralized money power and monopoly was dangerous to the Govern
ment, whose elections and legislation it might control, and dangerous
to the people, whom it might impoverish for its own gain ; while it
was contended that all the benefits might be secured by some other
system of banking, and these perils avoided. Mr. Webster, who was
now in favor of the Bank, had opposed it when it was chartered in
302
JACKSON.
[CHAP. XII.
1816 ; and he was not the only member of Congress who had changed
sides on the question. It became necessary for the President, in
carrying out his object, to remove Secretary Duane, because of his
refusal to transfer the deposits. His successor, Roger B. Taney,
afterward Chief Justice, complied with the President's wishes, and
the deposits were thereafter placed in several selected banks.1 The
Senate resolved that the reasons for removing the deposits were un
satisfactory, and that the President had usurped unconstitutional
power over the Treasury by removing the Secretary ; the House re
solved that the Bank ought not to be re-chartered, nor the deposits
restored.
Before the conclusion of this struggle over the Bank, a new presi
dential election had come and gone.
There is a prevalent belief that Jack
son was reflected by an unprecedented
majority. But of the eight presi
dential elections from the elder to the
younger Adams — including both —
the successful candidates in four of
them were chosen by larger majorities
than were given to Jackson. It was
only that there was more noise than
ever before, with the result that the
country then formed the pernicious
habit of depending more upon noise
than reflection in the selection of a
chief magistrate. But though this en
thusiasm produced an erroneous im
pression, there was evidence enough
of the President's great popularity in two hundred and nineteen elec
toral votes cast for him, out of a total of two hundred and
eighty-six. His course in regard to the Bank, though not
the sole cause of his popularity, undoubtedly had much to do with it.
A thorough knowledge of fiscal affairs and the true functions of a
bank was not necessary to an intelligent comprehension of the fact,
that there might be a far wiser and more prudent disposition of the
public, finances than to intrust them to a banking institution con
trolled by private persons, and that they might be, when so placed,
1 Knowing what would be the fate of this appointment, Jackson refrained as long as
possible from sending Mr. 'Fancy's name to the Senate for confirmation. When, in the
last week of the session, he did present it, it was promptly rejected by a vote of two to
one. The '' removal of the deposits " did not consist in any actual withdrawal of funds
from the Bank, but in making all deposits thereafter at certain other designated banks.
Roger B. Taney.
Reelection
of Jackson.
1»3-'.] ANTI-MASONRY. 303
perverted to personal or party purposes. With such a substratum
of sound argument, it was easy to arouse almost unbounded enthu
siasm for the man who, on this plea, could be made to appear as
the poor man's friend as against the rich, as the protector of the
rights of the many as against the few.
Clay in this election was Jackson's competitor, and, besides the
suffrages of the high-tariff party, it was expected that he
. . . . Morgan and
would acquire great strength trom the support of the Ann- the Anti-
masons. This party originated in the murder, in 18:26, of
one William Morgan, who professed to expose in a book the secrets
of the order, and was, therefore, deliberately killed by direction of
his official superiors. Out of this incident grew a political party, op
posed to all secret societies, and determined to suppress the Masonic
order by law. It was stronger in New York than anywhere else, for in
the western part of that State Morgan had lived and was murdered ;
and it was there that, a year afterward, a coroner's jury was either
induced or cajoled by some clever political knaves to declare that a
dead body found on the shore of Lake Ontario was that of Morgan.
This body was of a man recently drowned ; Morgan had disappeared
a year before. Morgan was a smooth-faced, bald-headed man ; the
face and head of the corpse, when first found — its appearance was
changed in a few hours in these particulars — were well covered with
hair ; the drowned person was four inches taller than Morgan was
known to be ; and finally a Mrs. Monroe appeared and recognized the
corpse as that of her husband, who was drowned a few weeks before,
and the clothes it had on as those she had mended with her own
hands ; and the man who was with Monroe when he fell overboard
from a boat also identified him. But up to this time it was a disputed
point whether Morgan was alive or dead ; it was necessary to the
Anti-masonic frenzy that his death should be proved ; and on this
verdict of a coroner's jury a political tornado swept the country.1
Its violence was too far spent, however, to withstand the counter gale
of Jackson's popularity in the election of 1832.
But there were other causes besides his conduct toward the bank
that aroused enthusiasm on behalf of Jackson. The reve- Jackgon-g
nue during his administration had far exceeded expenditure, i'°Pulant>'
and the national debt was in process of rapid extinction. His mod
erate tariff views commended him to that large class of persons who
would levy imposts only for revenue, giving protection an incidental
1 The essential facts relating to the origin of this remarkable political episode in the his
tory of parties in the United States are first fully set forth in a recent monograph entitled,
American Political Anti-masonry, with its " (Hood Enough ^forgan," by Henry O'Rielly.
Mr. O'Rielly was at that period editor of the Rochester Daily Advertiser, the first daily
newspaper west of the Hudson River.
304
JACKSON.
[CHAP. XII.
consideration. He had saved the government from enormous expen
ditures by his vetoes of bills for internal improvements, for the Dem
ocrats of that day believed that such use of the public funds was un
wise as well as unconstitutional. The long-standing difficulty between
England and the United States, in regard to the West India trade,
had been favorably settled by Louis McLane, the Minister at London,
though at the price, the opposition declared, of the dignity of the
A Hickory-pole Election.
Government, But the trade was opened ; and Jackson's popularity
was not injured in his own party, that, in bringing about a result so
desirable, lie had made concessions to England which Adams had con
sidered humiliating. For all these reasons, he had become almost as
popular at the North as he had long been at the South — not, per
haps, among the most intelligent of the people, who could not forget
the radical defects of the man, nor the corrupt influence, in many re
spects, of his administration, but among those whose admiration for
his courage and strength of will blinded them to his other qualities,
1832.] A SURPLUS OF REVENUE. 305
and who believed that he was as pure as he was strong. So absolute
and intense was the character of this singular man, that he so com
pletely absorbed the attention of those who saw one side of him only,
that the other side was totally invisible, and he was accordingly either
beloved and admired, or detested and feared.
The country was becoming embarrassed with a difficulty hitherto
unknown in the histories of states. Unencumbered with A surplus of
revenue.
debt, as it would be presently, its revenue would be larger
than it could have any possible use for. The problem did not seem
to be one difficult of solution, as the source of revenue, the tar
iff, could be reduced, and this would not only render a surplus im
possible, but would at the same time lift a burden of taxation from
the shoulders of the people. But what in that case would become of
protection ? Mr. Clay answered the question by pushing through
Congress, in 1832, a bill which provided for a reduction of duties
upon foreign products, except where they came in conflict with arti
cles of domestic manufacture. As sufficient revenue could be pro
duced without a resort to such an expedient, this was an announce
ment that the Northern protective policy was accepted absolutely as
the policy of the Government, in spite of the Southern slaveholding
interest. It was a signal of a renewal of the conflict between free
labor and slave-labor, which broke out soon after in the nullification
contest with South Carolina.
There had been some preliminary skirmishing, for South Carolina
had shown signs of revolt in public meetings after the pas
sage of the tariff bill of 1828, and Georgia sent in an earnest Webster de
but solemn protest against it. In 1830, the constitutional
question involved was settled, so far as argument could settle it, in a
memorable debate between Hayne and Webster, in the Senate. A
resolution was offered by Samuel A. Foot, of Connecticut, directing
an inquiry into the expediency of suspending, for a time, the sale
of public lands, and under it Mr. Hayne brought up the question
of State Rights. His argument was the old one — old as the Consti
tution itself — that the "consolidation of the government" was the
one great evil to be dreaded and resisted. Webster took his stand
upon the ground of the early Federalists, that the United States was
a Nation. It was not the servant of four and twenty masters, but
"the people's Constitution, the people's Government ; made for the
people ; made by the people ; and answerable to the people." It was
not " the creature of State Legislatures;" it was the "independent
offspring of the popular will." Jackson was attached to the Union
with all the strength of his impulsive nature, and did not need to be
aroused to the impending conflict ; but Webster's speech made, prob-
VOL. iv. 20
"306 JACKSON. [CHAI-. XII.
ably, a deeper and more abiding impression on the minds of the
Northern people than any other ever delivered in the halls of Con
gress, before that time.
Nullification was a practical application of the doctrine of the
Nuiiiflca- Virginia and Kentucky Resolutions of 1798. It was not, its
supporters maintained, necessarily secession nor war, though
it might in the last resort lead to both. The first duty of the citizen
was to the State, not to the Federal Government. The State — was
Calhoun's argument — having determined to protect its citizens by
an act of nullification, would put an insuperable obstacle in the way of
any penalty imposed by the Federal courts for obedience to that act.
The nullification, he contended, did not disturb the legal relation be
tween the State and the Union, but rather confirmed it, Force
could not be employed by the Federal Government, not only because
no such power was intrusted to it by the Constitution, but because,
.the question being a moral one, no physical opposition would be
found. Even should the final step of secession be taken, — and he
granted that under certain conditions it might be necessary, — force
could then only be applied after due formalities, the seceding State
being now in law and in fact a foreign government. His argument
found ready listeners, to whom it seemed conclusive. Moreover,
there was a strong precedent in the summary and unrebuked manner
in which Georgia, not long before, had defied the authority of the
'General Government, and refused to obey the decision of the Su-
.preme Court. The difficulty with South Carolina lay deeper, inas
much as it involved wider interests and the peaceful relations of
•different sections of the Union ; b'ut the essential question was the
same in both cases. As that, however, related to the rights of In
dians, while now it was a question of the supremacy of slaveholders
.-as slaveholders, the position was so much the stronger.
As the power to act in such an emergency must come directly from
the people, the Legislature of South Carolina called a Con-
Nullifica-
tion ordi- vention. This assembled on the 24th of November, 1832,
south caro- and an ordinance was passed, declaring the tariff acts to be
Una.
null and void ; that the payment of duties should not be en
forced within the State ; and that any attempt on the part of the
Federal Government to enforce its laws would absolve the State from
.all connection with the Union, and it would immediately establish a
separate and independent government. Nullification, if not assented
to, was to be followed by secession.
At the meeting of the Legislature immediately afterward, the
"Governor, in his message, said that the ordinance was the funda
mental law of the State ; and that it was the duty of that body to
1832.]
NULLIFICATION.
807
" look to and provide for all possible contingencies." Various acts,
accordingly, were passed to meet the emergency. The Gov-
° J ' . 1 • • * Preparations
ernor was authorized to accept the services ot volunteers; forseces-
sion.
fortifications were ordered to be repaired ; old arms were to
be put in order, and new ones manufactured ; ammunition to be pro
vided, and everything done that could be done to prepare for war.
A martial rage took possession of the people ; the men everywhere
devoted themselves
to military drilling ;
the women had no
occupation but to
make p a 1 m e 1 1 o
cockades and pre
pare battle-flags and
ensigns of State sov
ereignty; the Uni
ted States flag was
raised union down,
while some of the
volunteer regiments
had provided a red
standard with a sin
gle black star in the
centre, to be un
furled at the mo
ment secession
should be p r o-
claimed. Two or
three mass in e e t-
ings were held
every week, to keep
up the enthusiasm.
At one of these
meetings, Governor Making cockades.
Hamilton told the
crowd that, to try whether the Federal authorities would dare to
enforce the revenue laws, he had ordered several boxes of sugar
from Havana. " And," he added, " if Uncle Sam puts his robber
hand on the boxes, I know you '11 go to the death with me for the
sugar ! " — a declaration that was received with immense applause.
But when the sugar arrived, it was quietly locked up in one of the
forts in Charleston harbor.
The President replied to the ordinance with a proclamation and a
JACKSON. [CHAP. XII.
message to Congress, which left no doubt of the temper in which he
would meet any attempt at disunion.1 He denied the right
Position of n-X • • • 111
the Presi- of either nullification or secession, pointed out the absurd
ity of State sovereignty, and assured the South Carolinians
that if they resisted the laws they would be coerced by the combined
power of the other States. Finally, as a fellow citizen and a native
of their State, he entreated them to give up their foolish scheme.
" Contemplate the condition of that country of which you still form
an important part. Consider its government uniting in one bond of
common interest and general protection so many different States, giv
ing to all their inhabitants the proud title of American citizen,
protecting their commerce, securing their literature and their arts,
facilitating their intercommunication, defending the frontiers, and
making their name respected in the remotest parts of the earth.
. . . Behold it as the asylum where the wretched and the oppressed
find a refuge and support. Look on this picture of happiness and
honor, and say, We too are citizens of America. . . . And then add,
if you can, without horror and remorse, This happy Union we will
dissolve; this picture of peace and prosperity we will deface; this
free intercourse we will interrupt ; these fertile fields we will deluge
with blood; the protection of that glorious flag we renounce ; the very
name of Americans we discard ! "
General Scott was summoned to Washington, and it was deter
mined that strong garrisons should at once be thrown into
Scott sent to Fort Moultrie, Castle Pinckney, and the arsenal at Augusta,
Georgia, and a sloop-of-war and several revenue cutters be
sent to Charleston harbor. " Proceed at once and execute those
views," said Jackson. " You have my carte blanche, in respect to
troops ; the vessels shall be there, and written instructions shall follow
you." Scott went to Charleston, with sufficient military and naval
force under his command, to carry out the President's orders. He
maintained, however, amicable relations witli the citizens, and often
invited individuals or parties to the forts, that they might see what
they would have to encounter if it came to war.2
Calhoun, who had resigned the office of Vice-president, had taken
liis seat in the Senate, in the place of Hayne. Although it was un-
1 Two years before a public dinner was given, nominally to celebrate the birthday of Jef
ferson, but really as an impetus to the doctrine of nullification. The President, being called
upon for the first volunteer toast, gave that which has passed into a proverb, "Our Federal
Union : it must be preserved." Mr. Calhoun was next called upon, and gave this : " The
Union : next to our liberty the most dear : may we all remember that it can only be pre
served by respecting the rights of the States, and distributing equally the benefit and bu/-
den of the Union." The incident was accepted as a sign of what was coming. — Benton's
Thirty Years' View, i., 148.
2 Scott's Memoirs.
1832.] COMPROMISE. 309
der his teachings that South Carolina had been led into her present
position, it was also his determination to keep the contest Popular
within the bounds of speech; and while Jackson was equally f
in earnest in his purpose to use force if necessary, it became plain, as
the weeks wore on, that the fury displaying itself in proclamations
and laws was not yet ungovernable. It is by no means certain that the
President would not have preferred to compel South Carolina to re
turn to her allegiance to the Union, by force of arms ; and it is certain
that many in both Houses of Congress agreed with Adams and Web
ster that no concession should be made till the State had receded from
her rebellious attitude either voluntarily or by compulsion. How far
the country at large would have approved of extreme measures, it is
impossible to tell, but it is probable that Jackson's great popularity
would have carried the Northern wing of his party with him, and
the National Republicans would have united with it. Most of the
States, through their legislatures, assumed positions upon the abstract
doctrine of nullification. Massachusetts, Connecticut, New York,
Delaware, Indiana, Tennessee, and Missouri condemned it. Virginia
passed conciliatory resolutions, and appointed a special messenger to
carry them to South Carolina. North Carolina and Alabama con
demned nullification, but pronounced the tariff unconstitutional and
inexpedient. Georgia did likewise, and proposed a convention repre
senting Virginia, Tennessee, Alabama, Mississippi, the Carolinas, and
Georgia, to devise some relief from the protective system.
But there was compromise in the very air. The President asked
that special and enlarged powers should be given him to Th(1(
meet the emergency, and a bill was introduced for that pur- Fomise-
pose, called the Force Bill. It hung fire ; it was not till it was no
longer necessary that it became a law. But compromise did not hang
fire. The great champion of protection, Clay himself, introduced a
new tariff which essentially abandoned the policy of protection and
conceded to South Carolina the principle for which she was con
tending. It provided that where ad valorem duties exceeded twenty
per cent., one tenth of the excess should be remitted after December
30, 1833 ; one tenth thereafter on each alternate year, till December
31, 1841, when half of the remaining duty was to be remitted ; and
after June, 1842, all duties were to be reduced to twenty per cent.,
on a home valuation, to be paid in cash. Mr. Clay and his friends
conceded thus far for the sake of peace, reserving only this modified
protection for nine years to come. Mr. Calhoun and the nullifiers
graciously assented not to ruin at a single and sudden blow those
who had invested largely in manufacturing under a protective tariff.
As Pinckney went home, at the formation of the Federal Constitu-
310 JACKSON. [CHAP. XII.
tion, and explained to South Carolina that she could safely accept
that instrument as a sufficient guaranty of slavery, so Calhoun now
went back, and persuaded the people of the State that they could
safely lay down their arms, for their cause had triumphed. The bill
in the Senate was passed on the 1st of March, by a vote of twenty-
nine to sixteen.
In the House, meanwhile, a bill, introduced by Mr. Verplanck of
Thever- New York, was painfully and tediously dragged along from
pianckum. week £0 week. Jts object was to make the needed reduc
tion in the revenue, but, at the same time, to save the protective pol
icy. It was disposed of, and Mr. Clay's bill made to take its place
by one of those strategic movements by which compromise measures
have more than once been carried in similar struggles. Senator Ben-
ton — who, as a Southern representative, opposed any concession to
the Protectionists — is our witness. Late in the afternoon of the 25th
of February, he says, " Mr. Letcher of Kentucky, the fast friend of
Mr. Clay, rose in his place, and moved to strike out the whole Ver
planck bill — every word of it, except the enacting clause, — and in
sert, in lieu of it, a bill offered in the Senate b}^ Mr. Clay This
was offered in the House, without notice, without signal, without pre
monitory symptom, and just as the members were preparing to ad
journ. Some were taken by surprise, and looked about in amaze
ment ; but the majority showed consciousness, and what was more,
readiness for action. The Northern members, from the great manu
facturing States, were astounded, and asked for delay," — which was
not granted. Thus, he continues, " the bill which made its first ap
pearance in the House late in the evening, when members were gather
ing up their overcoats for a walk home to their dinners, was passed
before those coats had got on the back ; and the dinner which was
waiting had but little time to cool before the astonished members,
their work done, were at the table to eat it." x It is a striking pic
ture of Southern legislation by one of their own artists. But South
Carolina was appeased ; the Union was once more saved, after the
Southern manner; and the North meekly turned away to see what
next she could do with her dollars and her labor.
There were many who believed that it would have been better had
the question of disunion been then and there settled. But it is ex
ceedingly doubtful if it could have been. Jackson would have en
forced the laws and suppressed the insurrection with an unrelenting
will, for he did believe in the Union, and he did long, it was asserted,
for an opportunity to hang Calhoun. But the difference between
the North and the South lay deeper than a division upon a revenue
1 Thirty Years' View. By Thomas H. Beiiton.
1832.] THE PUBLIC LANDS. 311
or a protective tariff. One might be wise and the other foolish ; the
North could grow prosperous and rich under either, while the South,
so long as slavery existed, would be poor and ignorant, and only half
civilized, under both. It would have been more manly to have sup
pressed South Carolina. It was her statesmen, more than all others,
who, in 1816, had compelled the North to accept the policy which
now, in 1832, that State, rather than obey, would scatter the Union
into fragments. It would have been we'll enough, for the dignity
and the political morality of the nation, had there been only left
some fragments of South Carolina ; but that would have left, after
all, the great and inevitable battle still to be fought. Liberty and
Slavery could not exist forever in one Union. The final conflict be
tween them must come upon a broader field than a tariff of duties.
Next to the tariff the public lands were, during the administration
of Jackson, a fruitful source of debate in Congress, not
merely for their own sake. An interest so immense could be
easily made to play an important part in the affairs of political par
ties. It was part of Clay's compromise that the West should be rec
onciled to the reduction of duties by a division of the proceeds of the
sales of public lands among the States within whose boundaries the
sales were made. The President's veto nullified that part of the bar
gain. Then Western politicians used the question oF the price and
disposition of the public domain to further their private ambitions.
There could be, however, no question of the right of Congress to
control all lands in territory not organized into States ; but when the
State was formed it was maintained by many persons that the l;mds
became its property — a position stoutly and successfully contested by
Webster and others. From the first, the importance of these lands
as sources of revenue was never lost sight of. The price, reduced
in 1820 from two dollars to a dollar and a quarter an acre, continued
for many years. The action of Congress was generally favorable to
actual settlers. In 1835 and 1836 the purchases were much larger
than was required for occupation,1 although the encouragement given
by Congress had a steadily appreciable effect upon foreign immigra
tion. New settlers, finding lands preoccupied and held at high prices,
passed beyond the frontier surveyed, to settle where no immediate
payment was necessary.
The tables of immigration during the decade show a fluctuation
which is interesting, as indicating the waves of prosperity in
the country. Thus, in 1831, the number of alien immi
grants was nearly twenty-three thousand ; the next year it was over
1 Rising from less than five millions in 1834 to over fourteen millions in 1835. and
nearlv twenty-five millions in 1836.
JACKSON. [CHAP. XII.
fifty-three thousand. In 1834 the number was sixty-five thousand ;
in 1835 it had fallen off to forty-five thousand. It increased, until in
1837 it was nearly eighty thousand ; but the next year after that dis
astrous one it fell to less than thirty -nine thousand. In 1840 the
number was eighty-four thousand. The immigration had already, in
Jackson's time, begun to affect personal politics, and the Irish vote
was spoken of as a constituency to be respected.
There came, in the mean time, the financial crisis of 1837. The
United States Bank, on the refusal of Congress to extend its charter,
had procured a new one from Pennsylvania, but it differed from the
State banks only in the magnitude of its operations. The State
banks, under the impetus given by the breaking up of the United
States Bank, had increased their issue of paper from sixty-one mil
lions in 1830 to a hundred and forty-nine millions in 1837.
Large quantities of these notes had been received in payment for
The panic of public land, when, alarmed at the accumulation of so much
paper of uncertain value, the Secretary of the Treasury, by
order of the President, issued a circular instructing the agents in
charge of the land-offices to receive only gold and silver. This at
once caused a demand for specie, which could only be met by those
banks where the government funds were deposited.1 Most of the
others suspended. And when, a little later, the Government called
for its deposits, in order to make the distribution of surplus revenue
to the States, many of the favored banks were involved in the gen
eral ruin, and the panic of 1837 was the grand result.
The attacks upon the Bank shook public confidence in it. The re
moval of the deposits, and the refusal to extend the charter, weakened
the Bank itself, and led to an unlimited extension of local banks.
The immediate enormous increase of paper gave a specious show of
wealth, and while the paper floated on the public debt, it was used
both for promoting new industrial schemes and for luxuries. The
final result of the Congressional debates over the currency and the
banking system was the establishment, in 1840, of the sub-treasury
system, a measure which had been proposed by both parties alter
nately, and was looked upon as ending the controversy. Henceforth
the Government was to transact all its business by means of a metal
lic currency, and to be completely dissociated from all general finan
cial operations.
A single fact must be observed, from its conspicuous and yet appar-
nurpiusrev- ently feeble influence upon the state of affairs. In June,
1836, when the public debt was nearly extinguished, an act
was passed providing that after January 1, 1837, all surplus revenue
1 Called, in the slau^ of the day, " pet banks."
1837.] DISTRIBUTION OF SURPLUS REVENUE. 313
exceeding five million dollars should be divided among the States as
a loan, only to be recalled by direction of Congress. This unpre
cedented problem perplexed the statesmen of the time, but mainly as
to the principle of distribution. The ghost that could never be laid,
stalked again into the halls of Congress. Should the money be
divided according to population ? If the slaves were counted, that
would be to pay an unequal share to their masters ; if they were not
counted, the slave States would receive only their just proportion
according to the number of citizens. Compromise, as usual, healed
the difference at the expense of the North. The electoral vote was
made the rule of distribution. Thus Pennsylvania, whose electoral
vote was thirty, received about three million eight hundred thousand
dollars ; yet its population was nearly two hundred thousand more
than the free population of the six slave States, South Carolina,
Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, and Kentucky, whose elec
toral vote was fifty-three, and their nggregate share of the surplus
fund over six million seven hundred and fifty thousand dollars.1
The distribution, which extended over a year, amounted to twenty-
eight million dollars, and none of it was ever recalled. Before the
amount was all expended, it was evident that there would be a
deficit in the treasury. The States used the surplus variously : some
involved themselves in extensive improvements; some divided the
amount received among their citizens in petty sums. Never was
there a more unsatisfactory business operation.
After the blow of 1837, States as well as persons found themselves
insolvent. The expanded credit which an over-sanguine confidence
had sought and granted, had been especially applied to the enterprises
of States. The widespread bankruptcy made it easy for certain
States to persuade themselves that they also might take advantage of
the common course and put in the bankrupt's plea. A large part of
the State bonds was held abroad, and every effort was made by the
bondholders there to bring moral force to bear upon the repudiating
States. Congress was petitioned to assume the debts of the States,
in accordance with the precedent of 1791, but after a long debate
refused to take any action.
Notwithstanding financial disturbance, commercial disaster, politi
cal strife and corruption, the country shared with the rest Growthof
of the world in the wonderful material progress and pros- thecountr>"-
perity which mark this period. Steam came into general use as a
motive power in communication by water and by land, and in the
numberless uses to which it has since been put by inventive genius
and human industry. One born within the last twenty years to the
1 A View of the Federal Government in behalf of Slavery. By William Jay.
314
JACKSON.
[CHAP. XII.
common heirship of the present time, can hardly conceive how great
a change has been wrought within only half a century by a single
agency. Indeed, it is hardly fifty years since confidence in it was
so far established as to command the energies and the capital of men
and of States.
The first timid experiment in railroads was a tramway in Quincy,
First rail- Mass., built in 1826, chiefly by Thomas H. Perkins and Grid-
ley Bryant, of Boston. Its only purpose was for the easier
conveyance — by horses — of building-stone from the granite quarries
of Quincy to tide-water. It was the germ, however, of a mighty
movement in this country. The first railway in America for passen
gers and traffic — the Baltimore and Ohio — was chartered by the
Maryland Legislature in March, 1827. The capital stock at first
was only half a million dol
lars, and a portion of it was
subscribed by the State and
the city of Baltimore. Horses
were its motive power, even
after sixty-five miles of the
road wrere built. But in 1829
Peter Cooper, of New York,
built a locomotive in Balti
more which weighed one ton
and made eighteen miles an
hour on a trial trip to Elli-
cott's Mills. In 1830 there
were twenty-three miles of railway in the United States, which was
increased the next year to ninety-five, in 1835 to one thousand and
ninety-eight, and in 1840 to nearly three thousand.
Manufactures at the same time were rapidly increased, though this
Develop- was a long-established interest. A single mill for the man
ufacture of cloths and cassimeres was in operation in Hart
ford, Connecticut, in 1791. Three years later one was es
tablished in By field, Massachusetts, and in 1809, one at Oriskany,
New York. One which was built at Middletown, Connecticut, in
1812, was able to turn out from thirty to forty yards of broadcloth a
day, and was considered very large. In 1810 the total woollen manu
factures in the United States were estimated at twenty-six million
dollars ; but these were nearly all home-made. The rise of the
cotton industry diminished the production of Avoollen goods, so that
its value, in 1820 only four and a half million dollars, rose in 1830
to fourteen and a half million, and in 1840 to twenty-one million.
Samuel Slater, who had been apprenticed to Strutt and Arkwright
First Locomotive built in America.
ment of
manufac
tures.
1840.]
EARLY MANUFACTURING.
315
in England, and had assisted Strutt in improving his inventions, came
to New York in 1789, bringing in his head the whole idea of their
cotton-spin mng_jnacliinery. The exportation of the patterns had
been prohibited by act of Parliament, with heavy penalties, and at
the same time the Pennsylvania Legislature had offered a bounty for
their introduction. Slater set up three carding-machines in Paw-
tucket in 1790, and three years later began to erect mills in Oxford
(now Webster), Massachusetts.
In 1821 the water-power at Low- .,.,/'- " -
ell, on the Merrimac, was pur
chased by Boston capitalists, who
planted there the enterprises
which have developed what was
then a village of two hundred in
habitants into a large city.
But water-power soon ceased
to be an absolute necessity for
manufacturing purposes, as steam-
engines came into use. Other
cities and towns grew up all over
the country, wherever labor could
hold in its hands any other imple
ment than a hoe. The railroads
annihilated space and time, and as
they carried the multitudes from the sea-coast to the prairies to peo
ple a continent, so the fruits of all industries could be brought back
rapidly and cheaply. The navigation of the Mississippi, for the right
to which nations once contended, ceased to be in a few years of any
other than local importance, as travel and commerce found a shorter
way across the Alleghanies from the Atlantic to the eastern slope of
the Rocky Mountains.
*T" 'f*»
In 1840 Sioney- Morse, of New York, obtained a patent for an ap
paratus by which instantaneous communication could be carried over
wires, for any distance, by electricity. Four years afterward it was
put to practical use between Washington and Baltimore. The net
work of wire that has since been woven about the globe has changed
the relations of the human family.
Samuel Slater.
Head of "The Liberator."
CHAPTER XIII.
SLAVERY AND ANTI-SLAVERY.
A NEW ERA. — THE MODERN ANTI-SLAVERY MOVEMENT. — GARRISON AND " THE LIB
ERATOR." — His EARNESTNESS AND DETERMINATION. — DEBATE ON SLAVERY IN
VIRGINIA. — THE SOUTHAMPTON INSURRECTION. — PANIC AT THK SOUTH. — THE
SOUTHERN IDEA OF GOVERNMENT. — SLAVERY MET ON A NEW ISSUE. — THE ABOLI
TIONISTS. — THE ATTEMPTS TO SUPPRESS THEM. — PENAL LEGISLATION PROPOSED. —
THE RESORT TO VIOLENCE. — THE REIGN OF MOBS. — INFLUENCE OF SLAVIRY ox
MORALS, MANNERS, LITERATURE, AND COMMERCE.
IN 1831 appeared the first sign of a movement which, when con-
Theanti- temporaneous passions and prejudices shall have passed
slavery era. awav> w{]} be recognized as the beginning and largely the
source of a new era in American history. It was a natural consequence
of the old slaveholding dispensation that the generation that has
passed, or is just passing away, should be made to believe that " Abo
litionism " —not slavery — was the sum of all villanies ; it was almost
inevitable that the next generation should fail to recognize in the
influence which governs their time, that very movement of which
they know little except that their fathers hated and reviled it. But
hated as it was, by those who had eyes enough to see into to-morrow,
despised as it was, by the vulgar and the ignorant who have eyes
that can hardly see even to-day, the future will discern in this move
ment the germ of one of those revolutions that overturn dynasties,
save nations, and insure continued progress in human affairs.
It was in that year that William Lloyd Garrison, a young printer,
from a country town in Massachusetts, established in Boston
Garrison •'
and "The a newspaper, which he called " The Liberator," to be de-
Liberator."
voted to the abolition of slavery. He saw, with the vision
of a prophet, the long and terrible struggle before him, as he said in
the first number of that journal with the eloquence of a sublime pur-
1831.]
GARRISON AND THE LIBERATOR.
317
pose, — "I am in earnest ; I will not equivocate ; I will not excuse ; I
will not retreat a single inch ; and I will be heard." And he kept his
word. From that time till slavery was abolished, " The Liberator "
appeared weekly, weighed down often with discouragements and diffi
culties, reviled, hated, and feared, but never faltering, never untrue
to the great idea of its founder, who would never equivocate, never
excuse, never retreat a single inch, and was never afraid. In its ear
liest days one of Garrison's staunchest supporters said to him, " My
friend, do try to moderate your indignation and keep more cool;
why, you are all on fire." " Brother," he answered, "I have need to
be all on fire, for I have mountains of ice about me to melt." It was
a flame that soon set the nation ablaze.
It is with moral as it is with material discoveries — they go for
nothing till the world is ready
for them. Garrison was not the
first to discover that slavery was
an evil and ought to be done
away with. That thought was
as old almost as the distinction
between right and wrong. It
was no more questioned than that
original sin was an evil, or that
an earthquake or a flood was a
disaster. But then the compen
sating doctrine was, that it could
no more be eradicated than the
natural tendency to moral or
physical weakness could be done
away with ; no more be brought
under control than a convul-
sion of the earth ; no more be ^t
stayed than the rush and roar
of mighty waters. The slaveholders, indeed, for that very reason,
could hardly help looking upon themselves as the elect of Thc new
Heaven ; for where else in all the economy of creation was doctrme-
there a sin that needed no repentance, — a crime for which a whine
was always sufficient atonement? Where else was there a wrong,
of man's own devising, for which there was no remedy?
Garrison's startling proposition wras, that all this involved a stu
pendous lie ; that there wras no more necessity for the continuance
of slavery than for the continuance of murder or robbery or dishon
esty, for wrong or outrage of any kind that one man might commit
upon another ; that, on the contrary, it could and should be brought
318 SLAVERY AND ANTI-SLAVERY. [CHAI-. XIII.
to an immediate end ; that the slaveholder must stop holding slaves,
as the murderer should cease to kill, or the robber to steal, or the
knave to cheat, or the criminal of any kind to continue in his evil
courses. If Garrison had talked of slavery as the divines preach of
man's inherent depravity, as a thing that came in with Adam, and
might go out with the Second Advent, nobody would have minded.
But he said, here is a gigantic wrong of man's contrivance ; for the
sake of humanity and in obedience to the laws of God, there is one
way to deal with it, and one only, — make an end of it now, not wait
for the Second Advent.
The slaveholders heard presently of this new doctrine with conster
nation. Slavery to them was wealth and power, social supremacy and
supremacy in the state. They were not forgetful of the attending dan
gers — the degradation of the many of their own race, kept in igno
rance and poverty which must needs be a continual menace ; and the
possible vengeance of a still lower class which was none the less to
be dreaded because their condition was but just above that of the
brutes. But eternal watchfulness was the price of slavery, and its
privileges were valued by the few who profited by them, more than
its dangers were, feared. The pleasure of possession was enhanced by
the impudent acknowledgment that such a state of society was ab
stractly wrong ; but that the responsibility rested on wicked people
of two or three centuries back, and the penalty would fall upon those
who were to come some centuries hence. " But as for me and my
house," said the slaveholder, " we will serve the Lord."
There came an end to this contentment and tranquillity, in the light
of this new doctrine, — that it was not the century before the last
that this evil was begun, nor the century after the next that some
thing should be done about it ; but that the sun which rose this morn
ing looked down upon a wrong done anew this day, and that before
it set it should shine upon penitence. Garrison spoke to an awaken
ing Northern intelligence. Calhoun said somewhere, when the North
ern conscience is aroused, and religious conviction is brought to bear
upon this question, then the Union will be dissolved, or slavery be
abolished. What the result must needs be was evidently foreshad
owed in Calhoun's own mind, by this concession that the case was
one to be carried into the court of conscience with religion for its
counsel. And these two men represented, with equal intellectual in
tegrity, the two antagonistic ideas which were to save or destroy the
Republic.
It was a notable coincidence that within the year of the appearance
of "The Liberator," Virginia should have proved in a debate of
weeks in the State Legislature, how impotent were all the plans that
1831.] DEBATE ON SLAVERY IN VIRGINIA.
slaveholders could devise for the extirpation of slavery ; how fear
ful its continuance was among them, and how completely, Anti.8iavery
nevertheless, the love of power, which the system secured ^e'vh-g'inia
to them in so many ways, could overcome all other consid- Leslslature-
erations. The debate was remarkable for the thorough exposure of
the evils which march with slavery with even stride — of its degrada
tion of all manual labor, its destruction of material prosperity, the
ignorance it enforces, the immorality it engenders. But not less re
markable was it that in all this it was the white man who was referred
to ; there was little consideration of the rights of the men who were
black. These were not, in Southern estimation, exactly men and
women, but chattels personal,1 although endowed with certain human
attributes, such as the gift of articulate speech, and the habit of walk
ing on their hind legs. He best spoke to the moral sense of that
Assembly who said that "the owner of land had a reasonable right to
its annual profits, the owner of orchards to their annual fruits, the
owner of brood mares to their products, and the owner of female
slaves to their increase." There was just a tinge of sarcasm pointed
at the supposition — if anybody should make it — that these colored
women could be anything but breeders for the vigintial crop of Vir
ginia slaves ; but it was meant to be, nevertheless, a bold statement
of a matter of fact. It was the opposite doctrine that gave power to
the new anti-slavery movement in Massachusetts, and so aroused the
whole nation, — that an infernal wrong was done to men and women
in the South, and that there must be an immediate end of it. The
difficulty was in making it plain that they were men and women, and
not brood mares and stallions, or other cattle ; but when that should
be done, none understood so well as the slaveholders themselves the
mighty meaning of that word immediate.
The debate was significant in another respect — it was the result of
abiect fear. The Southampton insurrection, as it was called,
i • T TI The South-
had occurred the previous August, and, though speedily sup- ampton in-
pressed, and involving only a limited district of country, was
magnified by the terror of the white inhabitants into a formidable
outbreak. Its leader was one Nat Turner, who believed himself
chosen of the Lord to lead his people to freedom. For a long time
he had heard voices in the air and had seen signs in the sky ; por
tents were written on the fallen leaves of the woods and in spots of
blood upon the corn in the fields, to warn him of a divine mission ;
his Bible, which he knew by heart, he found full of the prophecies of
the great work he was called upon to do. Fanaticism like his has
led men to great deeds, but Turner wanted followers like himself,
1 In Louisiana negro slaves were real estate.
320 SLAVERY AND ANTI-SLAVEIRY. [CHAP. XIII.
and, though he was believed to be a man of unusual mental power
and resources, he was singularly wanting in any plans or preparations
that could promise success.
Only six men were in his confidence. With these he started at an
appointed time to go from house to house, to kill every white person,
of whatever age, sex, or condition, to inspire universal terror, and
arouse the whole slave population. Beginning at Turner's own home,
they first killed his master, and going then to other plantations, were
joined by their slaves. An advance guard on horseback surrounded
each house in turn, holding it till their followers on foot, armed
with axes, scythes, and muskets, came up to complete the work of
destruction, while the horsemen rode on to the next house. In forty-
eight hours, fifty-five white persons were killed without loss to the
insurgents, who by this time had increased to about sixty. The band
then moved toward Jerusalem, the county seat, where they expected
to find plenty of fire-arms, and to be joined by large numbers. But
on the way, against Turner's protest, the majority insisted upon stop
ping at a plantation to enlist some of their friends. Here the band
became separated, and were attacked by two bodies of white men,
who, after some fighting, dispersed them. In forty-eight hours the
insurrection was suppressed. In the nature of things, no other re
sult than a speedy end of it was possible.
It now only remained to hunt down the offenders, and make an in
discriminate slaughter of suspected blacks, or those who were not
suspected but were only black. Turner, who had escaped to the
woods, dug a hole under a pile of fence-rails and lived in it for six
weeks, recording the weary days by notches on a stick, and leaving
his shelter only at midnight. He was accidentally discovered, and
compelled to change his quarters. For ten days he hid among the
wheat-stacks on a plantation. Again he was discovered and shot
at, but again escaped. The whole county was alive with armed men
in search of him; and as he crept one day from a hole beneath some
felled pine trees, he was confronted by a man with a leveled rifle,
and surrendered. Turner was marched off to Jerusalem, where he
was given a sort of trial, was of course found guilty of murder, and
one week later (November 11, 1831) was hanged.
This was only the beginning of the retribution. Turner's young-
wife, a slave, was tortured under the lash to compel her to produce
papers which, probably, had no existence. Fifty-three negroes were
formally tried, of whom seventeen were convicted and hanged, in
cluding one woman ; twelve were transported, and the remainder were
acquitted. But the extra-judicial punishments were much more
numerous. Negroes suspected of complicity were tortured, burned,
1831.]
THE SOUTHAMPTON INSURRECTION.
321
shot, and mutilated. The heads of some of these were set up along
the highways as a warning to their fellow slaves. The panic contin
ued till late in the autumn. On the least alarm, families abandoned
their homes and fled to the woods for safety. The terror Sprca(i of
had spread from Southampton County all over the* State, the pamc'
and not only through Virginia, but as far west as Kentucky, as far
south and southwest as Georgia and Louisiana. But nowhere could
there be found, though arrests were made in many places, and dili-
Discovery of Nat Turner.
gence and watchfulness were everywhere unremitting, the slightest
trace of any concerted movement, or that the plot extended beyond
Nat Turner and his six followers. Could any have been found, ven
geance would have been swift and sure in the universal terror; it was
only nine years before, without this incitement, that twenty-five slaves
were hanged at one time, in Charleston, South Carolina, by order of a
justice's court, without indictment and without a jury, on mere sus
picion of plotting insurrection.
VOL. IV. 21
322 SLAVERY AND ANTI-SLAVERY. [CHAP. XIII.
It was the theory of slavery to deny that the black was really a
man ; but his manhood was, nevertheless, too thoroughly believed in
to admit of a doubt that he longed for freedom and thirsted for ven
geance. There was always an avowed dread therefore, of insurrec
tion, which was sincere enough when there was any real danger.
But when danger was not immediate, its possibility was made good
use of to excite the sympathies of those who knew of slavery only
by report, and who would be less likely to meddle with it if con
vinced that the slaveholders reluctantly submitted to what they coidd
not help, and were entitled, therefore, to pity rather than deserving
of blame. It is remarkable how seldom the negroes, in the course of
two hundred years, attempted to redress their own wrongs ; while
the frantic fears aroused by those infrequent attempts show the keen
consciousness, on the part of the masters, of how terrible the wrongs
were that sometimes provoked retaliation. It was this fear and this
consciousness that had aroused the law-makers of Virginia.
But the panic soon subsided, the danger was forgotten, — or re
membered only as something that might return again for a few hours
to some future generation, — and old thoughts resumed their sway.
Those, it is said, who had made themselves most conspicuous in this
momentary revolt against the order of Southern society were driven
from public life, and were henceforth marked as men who needed
watching. In later years it was declared by the Northern opponents
of the Abolitionists that it was their measures which defeated this
movement against slavery in Virginia. But Garrison's " Liberator "
was then only in its first year, and it is safe to say that at that time
not a member of the Virginia Legislature could have ever heard
of him or of it. The simple truth was, that a cry of despair rent the
air when the volcanic flames illumined the heavens ; but when they
sank again and vanished, it was treason to say that the land was
not fair, and that beneath its thin crust the fires were still burning.
Hitherto, whatever struggle there had been with those who held
struggle slavery as an organized power, it was almost purely polit-
on'poutica? *cal' The contest was unequal, because on one side, under
the Constitution, was the representation only of numbers ;
on the other was the representation both of numbers and of property.
Numbers, on one side, might be, and were, divided in opinions and in
interests; property, on the other side, held opinions and interests to
gether in a single compact organization which, whenever slavery was
in question, could never be broken. Then slavery was, in the nature
of the case, always aggressive. Its contest was with the laws of the
universe ; the very stars in their courses were against it ; the strug
gle for mastery was with all that is wise, with all that is good, with
1831.]
SOUTHERN IDEA OF GOVERNMENT.
323
all that contributes to the progress, the virtue, the manliness, and the
happiness of the human race. To be passive was to perish ; it could
only live by continual conquest ; and this, if not always easy, was
always sure, when worth its while, so long as its opponents would
consent to confine the struggle to the field of politics. There it had
become irresistible by the force of centralization in the administra
tion of the Federal Government, through the power con- Theslave.
ferred by the Constitution upon slaveholders as an order. ^ ld^grjfea
" Domestic slavery," said Governor McDuffie, of South Caro- ment-
lina, "instead of being an evil, is the corner-stone of our republican
edifice," because it superseded
"the necessity of an order of
nobility and all the other ap
pendages of a hereditary system
of government." This was the
Southern theory of the Repub
lic — not that it was a popular
government, but a government
in which the slaveholders were
the ordained rulers. They as
sumed to be a privileged aris
tocracy, an order set apart from
and above the people, whose
Constitution recognized the
fact. To call the government
a republic, was only a conces
sion to popular sentiment. It
was intended that the suprem
acy and perpetuation of the or
der should be the fundamental
principle of the government, and the moment the Constitution was
perverted from that purpose, then from that moment the allegiance
of the order ceased. For more than half a century the history of the
government was made to conform to this theory. McDufh'e's order
of nobility -- whose coat-armor was a slave-whip and handcuffs —
practically reigned, though not altogether to the satisfaction of men
like Calhoun and McDuth'e, who believed that the ideal government
would not be reached, nor a perfect social condition be established,
till all laborers were slaves. They were thoroughly logical. If the
true theory of government was an aristocracy, the essential basis of
which was the ownership of the laboring class, then emigrants from
Ireland and Germany should be brought in and held as slaves, as well
as emigrants from Africa. It was maintained at the South that a
John C. Calhoun.
324 SLAVERY AND ANTI-SLAVERY. [CHAP. XTIL
fatal mistake was made when assent was given to the prohibition of
the introduction of laborers from Africa to be held as slaves, while
there was no restriction upon the coming of the corresponding class
at the North who were recognized as freemen. The balance should
have been kept even, either by the unrestricted introduction of slaves,
or the prohibition of free emigrants.
It was not long before Garrison made himself heard, and gathered
about him a small band of men and women as determined as himself.
The political aspect of the question was not to them of chief impor
tance. They acknowledged at the outset the limitations of the Con
stitution, and avowed in the clearest and most unmistakable
the Aboil- way their determination not to invoke Federal legislation to
interfere with slavery in the States. Where, however, Fed
eral responsibility existed, as in the District of Columbia, the terri
tories, and the domestic slave trade, there they demanded action.
But even for that purpose they neither formed, nor proposed to form
a political party, only praying that Congress should take into consid
eration the condition of the people who were under its control, and,
by its laws, were held in bondage. They were not so foolish as to as
sume that there, or in the States, legislation would precede conviction,
and it was to the task of conviction, therefore, that they addressed
themselves. The slaves, they said, wTere robbed of their birthright,
of their manhood, of the fruits of their toil, of all material well-be
ing, of intellectual growth, of religious culture, of equality and pro
tection under the law, of their rights as husbands, wives, and par
ents ; that all that made human life worth having was taken from
them. They were reduced to the condition of the brute, and like
beasts of burden bought and sold in the market.
The appeal was to the humanity, the mercy, and the consciences of
the people, on behalf of these two million of their countrymen,
whose condition had no parallel among civilized nations. But the
Abolitionists counselled no sudden or violent measures ; the slaves
themselves — if their words could reach them — they wrould exhort
to patience, forbearance, and longer suffering ; the masters they
urged, by argument, remonstrance, and exhortation, to repent of
wrong-doing and "let the oppressed go free;" but above all they
addressed themselves to the great body of the Northern people, who,
without the excuse of immediate contact with slavery, free from the
influence of personal interest in its continuance, belonging to a higher
grade of civilization than is ever possible where slavery exists, yet
stood in the presence of this monstrous wrong with profound indif
ference to its existence, or in criminal apathy at their own moral and
political responsibility. Slavery, the Abolitionists said, is an offence
1831.] ANTI-SLAVERY AGITATION. 325
of such magnitude that none can innocently uphold it, directly or in
directly. The North was not less guilty than the South, and it was
meet that they should first call the North to repentance.
In this brief statement is the whole body of doctrine of modern
Abolitionism, — the full measure of its offending. In the progress of
events, it is true, there came up side issues, growing out of some inev
itable application of fundamental principles, when followed to logical
consequences, or unlooked-for complications to which that gave rise.
But all was comprised in the assertion of the truth that a black man
was no less a man because he was black ; that to hold him as a slave
was a sin ; that for sin there was one remedy, and one only, in ethics
and religion, — immediate repentance and immediate atonement. It
was as simple as the Gospel; and its preaching, like the preaching of
the Gospel, brought not peace, but a sword. Many received
it gladly as the word they had waited for; many were faith- anti-siavcry
ful to the end ; many fainted by the way ; many proved that
they were of a generation of backsliders. Those who preached it,
preached according to their gifts, for, whatever other charges were
laid to the Abolitionists, it was not one of them that they were not
independent in thought and word, each man for himself and no re
specter of authority. Some were as gentle as the Apostle whom the
Master loved ; some, like the Master, cried, "• Woe unto you ! scribes
and pharisees, hypocrites ! " Others were filled with the spirit, and
sometimes with the power, of the older prophets, and with Jeremiah
cried out, "Woe unto him that buildeth his house by unrighteousness,
and his chambers by wrong ; that useth his neighbor's service with
out wages, and giveth him not for his work ! '' One of the most po
tent and the most ludicrous of the arguments brought against them
was that their language was harsh and intemperate. The baser sort
rebuked it with oaths, revilings, and brickbats, to inculcate modera
tion ; the less violent, but no less earnest, opponents of emancipation
professed, with a fine contempt of logic, to deprecate the use of lan
guage which made, they said, emancipation almost impossible.
It was, however, what the Abolitionists said, not how they said it,
that raised against them a storm of calumny and persecution the like
of which is unknown in any civilized community of modern times.
They were not misunderstood ; rather they were understood too well.
The whole country seemed to recognize the ominous sounds of an im
pending conflict in which the two great forces of liberty and slavery
were arrayed against each other for the first time in dead earnest and
for a final struggle. There was not an interest or a relation, social,
political, OT commercial, that would not be involved in this strife,
and the first popular impulse was to meet and suppress a movement,
326
SLAVERY AXD ANTI-SLAVERY.
[ClIAI-. X1JI.
the immediate cost of which was apparent, while the ultimate good
seemed dim and uncertain. The South was quicker than the North
to apprehend the danger, nor did her far-seeing leaders make a mis
take as to where that danger lay. Calhoun ridiculed the notion that
the Abolitionists proposed to liberate the slaves by force of arms.
" The war," he said, " which they wage against us is of a
prehension1* very different character, and far more effective, — it is
waged, not against our lives, but our character." " We
O o
do not believe," said Duff Green, a Washington editor, "that the
Abolitionists intend, nor could they
if they would, excite the slaves to
insurrection It is only by
alarming the consciences of the
weak and feeble, and diffusing
among our people a morbid sensi
bility on the question of slavery,
that the Abolitionists can accom
plish their object." It was pre
cisely because they exposed the true
character of slavery and slavehold
ers, and because they appealed to
conscience, that the South was
alarmed and that the North was
called upon to arrest the agitation.
wendeii Phillips. Before " The Liberator " had made
itself known in Boston, except to the few who sympathized with
its editor, an eminent legal gentleman of a Southern State wrote
to the Mayor of that city, Harrison Gray Otis, in 1831, complaining
of the publication of the paper, and commending it to his official
A Northern consideration. The Mayor replied that this was to him the
response. fivs^ intimation of the existence of such a sheet, but he had
verified it by 'repeated and diligent inquiries. He found that it had
received only " insignificant countenance and support," and that
the South had nothing to fear from Boston. But, should there
ever be indications that u opinion was taking a wrong direction," offi
cial application for its correction would receive "prompt and respect
ful attention."
If a quick response like this could come, at the first intimation of
peril, from one of the foremost men of Massachusetts, — one who, as
a leader in the Hartford Convention, not twenty years before, had
discerned, on political grounds alone, that between liberty and sla
very there could be no unity, — if such response from such a source
could come when the sharpened vision only of the slaveholder could
1831.] THE ABOLITIONISTS. 327
see the first red spark of fire, what was to be expected when the
whole horizon was kindled into flame? First tens, then hundreds,
then thousands, tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands were drawn
together by a new-born zeal, animated by a common religious convic
tion, inspired by pity for human suffering, demanding, with one
voice, from Heaven and from man, justice and "mercy for those who
were dumb. These people were the stuff that martyrs are
. , . , , ,. T 111 i Character of
made or in all ages. JNone doubted, none can doubt, that theAboii-
they were single-minded, of the purest lives, the longest-
headed, the picked and chosen of the body politic, the men and
women most esteemed, most trusted, in all things else save this of
anti-slavery, in the several communities where they were known for
their individual characters. But a broad and sharp dividing-line
was soon drawn between them and their countrymen. Some were
called upon to be literally martyrs, even unto stripes, imprisonment,
and death. Social ostracism was visited upon them all. Fanatics,
fools, traitors, infidels, incendiaries, were their mildest designations;
the climax of objurgation was reached with " nigger ! " The South
demanded their suppression as public enemies, and the
-\-rii • T-i-M Their sup-
North obeyed. Commerce, it was proclaimed, was in peril; prossion ue-
. -111 • .,..,. manded.
the state was in peril : the church was in peril ; civil society
was in peril ; religion was to be trampled under foot; civilization
was to be wiped out ; the throats of all the masters were to be cut by
their slaves ; all the white women were to be given up to the blacks ;
all white men were to take black wives. The intelligent and educated
class — in whose hands were the wealth and all that intelligence and
wealth command in the organization of society — were to be brought
into subjection by one sixth of their number, ignorant to the last
degree, possessed, as their share of the material resources of the
country, of a knife and a bludgeon. It may be questioned which
madness of that time is the most marvellous — the atrocities visited
upon the Abolitionists, or the pleas put forward to justify them. But
almost the whole North and the whole South became possessed of the
devil, because these people said that black men, as well as white, " are
endowed by their Creator with unalienable rights," and that to the
nineteenth century after Christ was as long a* delay in the establish
ment of that fact as could be reasonably tolerated.
The plans of the Abolitionists were as simple as their aim was
direct. They organized societies with brief but clear decla
rations of principles. They printed newspapers and pam
phlets, and sent forth speakers to disseminate these principles and
influence public opinion. Could they bring others to see as they
themselves saw, that slavery was a sin to be at once abandoned, the
328 SLAVERY AM) ANTI-SLAVERY. [(.'HAP. XIII.
work would be done. They denied that slavery was, as the slave
holders loved to call it, an Institution. As well, they said, talk of
the institution of counterfeiting, of forgery, of house-breaking, of
horse-stealing. A slave was originally a man stolen, and the robbery
was perpetuated in him or his descendants by sheer brute force. It
was simply a system of man-stealing, they said, and was no more to
be tolerated than any other monstrous wrong. As they were in
earnest and meant to be heard, it was easy to see what the end
would be if they could not be answered. It is our character that
is at stake, said Calhoun ; it is our consciences they appeal to, said
Duff Green. Then they must not be heard, and the readiest way to
silence them was by violence.
To emancipate the blacks even by common consent, would neces-
Thereigu sarily involve some sacrifices, and there were formidable
obstacles to be overcome before that consent could be ob
tained. If to these difficulties was added the fear of terrible dis
asters, of anarchy, of the shedding of innocent blood, it would be
easy, it was thought, to trample out agitation as though it were a
pestilence. The whole country, therefore, gave itself over to a dis
pensation of lies — some to creating, some to believing them, but
all to make them the apology for violence. For years the mob
reigned.
Large rewards were offered in some of the slaveholding States for
Southern ^ne apprehension of several of the leading Abolitionists.
The Legislature of Georgia passed a law appropriating five
thousand dollars to be paid to any person who should arrest, bring to
trial, and prosecute to conviction, under the laws of that State, the
editor of "The Liberator." Mr. Williams, the publisher of "The
Emancipator " in New York, who never in his life had been in the
State of Alabama, was indicted for declaring that man should not be
held as property, and his rendition was demanded as a fugitive from
justice, by the Governor of that State. Virginia, North Carolina,
South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, called upon the Northern States to
suppress the anti-slavery societies by penal enactments. Governor
W. L. Marcy, of New York, and Governor Edward Everett, of Massa
chusetts, earnestly commended the subject to the legislatures of those
opposition States, and a committee of the New York Legislature re-
h«. nma7 to ported that such laws would be enacted the moment they
seemed necessary. A bill was reported, though not passed,
by a committee of the Rhode Island Legislature, for the trial and pun
ishment of Abolitionists. At a public meeting in Mississippi, it was
resolved that whoever should circulate anti-slavery publications, " was
justly worthy in the sight of God and man of immediate death," and
183:3.]
PERSECUTION OF ABOLTOONISTS.
329
that such would be the penalty in any part of that State. In South
Carolina persons were appointed to examine all travellers ar-
• • /-^ii i i -i i IT Persecutions
riving at Charleston by steamboat or rail, and to deliver »tthe
over to the Vigilance Committee all suspected of anti-slavery
opinions. In Tennessee. Arnos Dresser, a travelling agent of the
Bible Society, in whose possession were found some anti-slavery pub
lications, not for sale but for his own use, was sentenced, at a public
meeting, at which the Mayor presided, to be punished with thirty
lashes upon his bare back.1 In Washington, Dr. Reuben Crandall,
it was accidentally ^ ^ % \.
discovered, had re
ceived some pack
ages, the wrappers
of which happened
to be anti-slavery
newspapers. He
was thrown into
prison a n d w a s
kept there for nine
months before h e
w a s permitted t o
answer to an in
The Domestic Slave-trade.
dictment for pub
lishing a malicious and wicked libel with an intent to excite the
slaves to insurrection. A Mr. Black, an agent of the Bible Society,
when it became known in New Orleans that he had offered a Bible
to a slave, was compelled to fly for his IrTe from the mob, after being
severely reprimanded in a court of justice. The local society pub
licly apologized for Black's conduct, with the acquiescence of silence
in the parent society in New York.
Manifestations like these — for these are a few only among many
— show the spirit then aroused at the South at what the South
instinctively recognized as an attack upon slavery that must inevi
tably lead to its destruction. The appeal to the North was met in
a like spirit. The legislative committee of New York did not recom
mend immediate legislation for the punishment of the Abolitionists,
because they believed, as Marcy suggested, that the popular oppo
sition to the movement would soon make an end of it. A perpetual-
1 One of the books found in Dresser's possession was called The Anti-Slavery Record,
:md it contained the engraving of which we give a fac-similc. " This," says Dresser in hi>
narrative, " added considerably to the general excitement." He adds : " Mr. Stout," who
had caused Dresser's carriage to be searched, "told me that the scene represented in the
cut was one of by no means unfrequent occurrence — that it was accurate in all its parts,
and that In- had \vitne-sed it again and again. Mr. Stout is himself a slaveholder."
330
SLAVERY AND ANTI-SLAVERY.
[CHA1-. XIII.
conflict was waged with the mob. In 1834, the house of Lewis Tap-
pan, a wealthy and distinguished merchant of New York, was sacked,
Northern ant^ ^ie furniture destroyed. In October, 1835, on one and
persecution. |.jle same faiy a mob, led by the most prominent citizen
of the town, broke up an anti-slavery meeting at Montpelier, Ver
mont ; another at Utica, New York, with the member of Congress
from that district and a county judge at its head, dispersed a meet
ing of the National Society, and compelled it to adjourn to the house
of Geirit Smith, at Peterborough : in Boston a meeting of women
was beset by a mob of " gentlemen of property and standing "
as the newspapers of the town styled them in justification of their
conduct: Garrison was rescued from the rioters, with a rope already
The Alton Riot —From an old Print.
tied about his boc.y, and lodged in the city jail for safety, by order
of the Mayor, who seemed to think it best lie should not be hanged,
though his life was not worth the suppression of a riot. The ladies
found refuge in the private house of Francis Jackson. The next
summer, the press and types of " The Philanthropist," a newspapei
established in Cincinnati by James G. Birney, — a Southerner by
birth, who had been a slaveholder, but had given freedom to his
slaves, — were thrown into the Ohio. " Gentlemen," said the Mayor
to the rioters, when the work was finished, " it is now late at night,
and time we were all in bed ; by continuing longer you will dis
turb the citizens or deprive them of their rest, besides robbing your-
1836.]
THE REIGN OF MOBS.
331
Burning of
Pennsyiva-
ma Hall.
selves of rest. No doubt it is your intention to punish the guilty
and leave the innocent We have done, enough for one night."
The following year a mob attacked a warehouse in Alton, Illinois,
where a printing-press was stored belonging to the Rev. E. Murderof
P. Lovejoy. Here, and on the opposite side of the river, in Love->°>'-
Missouri, his newpaper, " The Observer," had been three times sus
pended by the destruction of his printing materials. This
time, the fourth, the suppression was permanent, for the
editor was murdered. The news was received by what some
of the leading citizens of Boston tried to turn into a congratulatory
meeting in Faneuil Hall ; but which gave to anti-slavery a convert,
AVendell Phillips, whose career,
destined to be so marked in its
influence upon the history of
the next thirty years, began at
that moment. Six months after
ward, Pennsylvania Hall , a
costly building erected in Phila
delphia, that there might be one
place there always open to free
discussion, was for that reason
burned to the ground. It was
dedicated the previous day by an
anti-slavery meeting, at which
a poem by the young poet Whit-
tier was read. The keys were
given to the Mayor that he
might be responsible for its
safety ; but no effort was made
either to suppress the rioters or
to extinguish the fire. John G. Whinier. d^g.,
The years of these incidents
were especially marked by such evidence of the popular determina
tion to suppress at any cost this dangerous movement against slavery.
But these were only the more remarkable instances of the character
of that violent opposition ; it was continued, sometimes with greater,
sometimes with less bitterness, down to the very eve of the rebellion,
according to the temper of the moment. During all that time, as
the voice of the anti-slavery lecturer and press never ceased in the
land, proclaiming the only issue on which slavery could ever be suc
cessfully met, namely, its inherent and absolute sinfulness, so to the
end, till the contest was virtually over, there was always the sole re
sponse that had any force in it, namely, trample out that doctrine
332 SLAVERY AND ANTI-SLAVKKY. [CHAP. XIII.
and those who preach it. When a generation or two more have
passed away, it will be easier to see and to understand how the scat
tered seed of a new faith yielded a thousand-fold of f mi tf illness, and
the North was gradually educated to meet the question of a govern
ment of and for the people, or the rule of and for an oligarchy of
slaveholders.
The condition of the free negro was one result of slavery which the
Abolitionists could not overlook. They exposed the charae-
/.ation Sod- ter of the Colonization Society, established in 1816. which.
i'ty. J
at the North, sought the support of philanthropists under
the pretence of facilitating emancipation, by returning at last all the
slaves to Africa; while at the South its avowed purpose was to expa
triate all free negroes, lest by their presence the slaves should be re
minded that their bondage was not altogether hopeless. It was not
one of the least of the anti-slavery offences that Garrison and Judge
William Jay so thoroughly stripped that society of its hypocritical
pretence. Gerrit Smith, the Tappans, Birney, and many others of
the earliest and most earnest of the anti-slavery people, were Coloniza-
tionists, till they discovered that in supporting that scheme they had
been the dupes of the slaveholders ; nor could it longer rely upon the
aid and countenance of the Federal Government, which had hitherto
been given it almost without question. The popular opposition to
the anti-slavery movement was strengthened, therefore, by the hos
tility of the Colonizationists, who gave the whole weight of their
influence to add to the torrent of misrepresentation and persecution.
The condition of Northern free blacks was hardly better than that
The Free °f tne same class in the Southern States. They were pa-
Biack*. riahs ; if the law recognized them at all, it was to oppress,
not to protect them ; no calling was open to them, save the lowest
menial service : their presence among whites in public places was a
forbidden intrusion ; the schools were shut in their faces ; if they
^vere permitted to worship God in common with their fellow-creatures,
it was only in the negro-pew, above the galleries, close under the ceil
ing, as far as they could be removed from the rest of the congrega
tion ; should enough of the spirit of the white man's Christianity
reach them there to lead to a wish to commemorate the Last Supper,
they were taught that the Lord had spread for them a second table ;
and when at last dust unto dust was pronounced over their poor black
bodies, it was in some remote corner of the grave-yard, lest when the
trumpet of the resurrection sounded there should be a disagreeable
confusion of persons. In all the more ferocious mobs it was the in
nocent colored people who were the chief sufferers. The rage against
the Abolitionists would yield, even at white heat, to the deeper hatred
1836.]
THE FRKE BLACKS.
of the blacks. When Pennsylvania Hall was burned, the rioters were
easily turned aside, when on their way to attack the private houses
of some of the leading anti-slavery people, by a cry, tk to the nigger
school-house ! " raised by one who put himself at their head to divert
their blind rage from the taking of life to the destruction only of
property. In New York, in Boston, in' Cincinnati, and in other
places, it was a sort of sportive relief from the serious business of
suppressing anti-slavery gatherings to sack the meeting-houses and
the dwellings of negroes.
Ruins of Pennsylvania Hall.
It was only where the blacks were very numerous that they were
permitted to acquire the merest rudiments of education in EdUL.ation
schools of their own. The promise of anything more was re- de»leilthem-
sented, so true was the logical instinct that every advanced step of
the free colored man was one step nearer the freedom of his race. It
was therefore, that when Miss Prudence Crandall of Canterbury,
Connecticut, opened a school for colored young women, she was pur
sued with months of persecution, her furniture destroyed, her house
set on fire, the lives of her pupils endangered, she herself thrown into
prison, and an act passed by the Legislature forbidding schools of
that character within the boundaries of the State. When a few col
ored boys were admitted into an academy at Canaan, New Hamp
shire, it was declared by a vote in town-meeting, that the school was
a nuisance ; and the people of the neighborhood assembled with a
334 SLAVERY AND ANTI-SLAVERY. [CHAP. XIII.
hundred yoke of oxen, dragged the building from its foundations for
some distance, and left it in ruins. At Zanesville, Ohio, a young-
woman opened a school for colored children, but it was broken up by
the destruction of her furniture and the books, and the teacher driven
from the town by personal abuse. In Brown County, in the same
State, a school-house was burnt to the ground, with all it contained,
and the teacher compelled to leave the place, for the same offence. Tt
was proposed to establish a collegiate school in New Haven, Connecti
cut, for the education of colored boys ; but the Mayor, when he heard
of it, called a public meeting, and the citizens declared that they
would resist the establishment of such a school in that town, and the
scheme was necessarily abandoned.
It must not be supposed that acts like these were the acts of mere
ruffians. The mobs of that period were often led in person,
Northern and always incited, by men of the highest social, political,
mobs. , 1 • • •• T l> 1 1 • 1 I •
and religious position. It the law was invoked, it was to
justify riot; if the officers of the law interfered, it was to protect the
rioters. It was assumed that the interests of politics, of commerce,
of literature, of art, of education, of religion, were involved in the
speedy suppression of the agitation against slavery. At the second
anniversary of the National Society, in New York, a leading member
was called out of the meeting by one of the principal merchants of
Northern the city to give him this warning, — " We cannot afford to
let you and your associates succeed in your endeavor to over
throw slavery. I have called to let you know, and to let your fel
low-laborers know, that we do not mean to allow you to succeed.
We mean to put you down, by fair means if we can, by foul means if
we must." The Faculty of Lane Theological Seminary, at Cincin
nati — of which Dr. Lyman Beecher was President — ordered its
students to break up an anti-slavery society they had formed among
themselves, a mandate which they obeyed by nearly breaking up
the seminary, for they left it almost in a body. One of the largest
publishing houses in the country said in a letter published in a South
ern newspaper, " it must be pretty generally understood in your sec
tion, as well as elsewhere, that we uniformly decline publishing works
calculated to interfere in any way with Southern rights and Southern
institutions." In the same letter they said : "Since the receipt of
your letter, we have printed an edition of the ' Woods and Fields ' in
which the offensive matter has been omitted." The " Woods and
Fields " was an English book of tales, reflecting somewhere upon
slavery, of which the New York publishers had inadvertently printed
an edition without mutilation. They wrote directly to another South
ern newspaper " that they had refrained from republishing a certain
1834.] NORTHERN BASENESS. 335
English work, very ably written uncl likely to be profitable," because
the author was an " Abolitionist, and we would have nothing to do with
him." In Hinton's " History of the United States" — republished by
another Northern house in numbers — there was something objection
able to the slaveholders ; all the numbers, containing it, that could
be found in New Orleans were seized and burned, and the agent com
pelled to flee for his life ; in Charleston they were withdrawn from
circulation, and the New York publishers printed a new and expurgated
edition. Do these things seem too base and too cowardly to be credi
ble? They are only a few instances among many that showed the
servile spirit of the time. It pervaded all things and governed every
where. Intense excitement and debate was aroused in the House of
Representatives at Washington because there had been placed upon
the shelves of the Congressional Library a work upon political econ
omy, in which a chapter was given to the consideration of slavery
purely as a question in social science. Dr. Wayland, President of
Brown University, in a work upon Moral Philosophy, asserted the
natural equality of all men, and that the enslavement of any part of
the human race was incompatible Avith that law. The protest at the
South against ever again sending Southern youth to that college, was
loud and earnest.
It is not to be denied that the great mass of the Northern people
were absolutely destitute of any humanity for the blacks, or any
principle in regard to slavery. They knew nothing of the character
of the Slave Code — unmatched for its atrocities in any body of law
reduced to writing within the last thousand years — and they cared
nothing for the condition of those who under it were held as property
and treated as beasts. But they believed that any interference with
slavery would convulse the political, commercial, and social relations
of the country, and, though it might be confessed an evil, its cure was
not worth such a convulsion. It may be said also, in their defence, a
defence that can be made, however, only at the expense of Northern
intelligence, that they honestly believed the Abolitionists meant to
arouse the slaves to insurrection. The lie was purely a Southern
invention, accepted by the thoughtless, or used as a pretext for vio
lence by those who knew it to be a lie. It hardly needs now to be
said, that in the whole range of anti-slavery publications, in all the
constitutions of anti-slavery societies, in the speeches of anti-slavery
lecturers for thirty years, not a single word was ever printed or ever
spoken that sustains this accusation. On the contrary, till John
Brown went to Virginia, in 1859, all appeals to the slaves wrere dis
avowed, officially, individually, in thousands of ways, on thousands of
occasions. Moreover, the very philosophy of the movement showed
336 SLAVERY AND ANTI-SLAVERY. [Cii.vr. XIII.
the absurdity of the calumny. That was nothing if not moral ; it
relied on no arm of flesh ; no Abolitionist ever lifted his hand even
to repel outrage upon himself; his faith was absolute in the appeal
to reason and to conscience, and if this failed he had no hope left.
That such a charge was accepted, only proves the readiness of the
pro-slavery Northern people to secure their own peace by the sacrifice of
accusations. mi]}jons of their colored countrymen, by assuming a pretext
which both North and South knew to be false. They not only knew
it to be false, but they also knew that no such appeal could be
made to the slave, nor would it be heeded if it could. The African
in America, whether bond or free, either from inherent quality of
race, or from the habit of submission, patience, and long-suffering en
gendered by centuries of subjection, has rarely shown any spirit of
revolt. He may sometimes run away, but he does not resist. The
Abolitionist was too wise and too merciful to attempt to stir up a
servile war, which could only end in prolonging the servitude of the
blacks ; the slaveholders laughed that the great majority of the
Northern people were either so stupid or so wicked as to consent to
be duped by so absurd a pretext. But the few who, after all, made
the public opinion of the North were not dupes, however it might be
with the rabble who followed them. If slavery were really in danger,
much else would be in danger also. From 1830 to 1840 the whole
country was afloat upon a wild sea of speculation ; the price of cotton
went up in the course of that decade from six cents to twenty, and
fluctuated anywhere between, as there was access or decrease of the
public fever ; more than twenty million acres of public lands were
condition of bought in the southwest ; nearly four hundred thousand
the country. s}aves Were transferred from the slave-breeding to the cotton
and sugar States, for the cultivation of these lands ; all this was done,
mainly, with borrowed capital, and plantations, slaves, cotton-crops
were mortgaged directly or indirectly to Northern capitalists, through
public or private credit, and whatever threatened to disturb it threat
ened great pecuniary loss. With all this was involved the never-
ceasing struggle of the slaveholders for the perpetuity of their political
ascendency, who offered their favor to the highest bidder among
Northern politicians. These influences, however little they may pal
liate the pro-slavery furor of the time, are not to be lost sight of in
any consideration of its history. The North thought, at least, that
its rage was not altogether without reason.
But the lie was sent forth to the world with the highest sanction;
President Jackson, in his annual message to Congress in 1835, called
'•attention to the painful exitement produced in the South by at-j
tempts to circulate through the mails inflammatory appeals addressed
1 S35.J
PRO-SLAVERY ACCUSATIONS.
337
to the passions of the slaves, in prints, and in various sorts of publica
tions, calculated to stimulate them to insurrection, and to produce all
the horrors of a servile war." It is quite likely that he believed this
to be true, for he never permitted himself to be embarrassed by evi
dence in coming to a conclusion : and accordingly, he urged Congress
to pass a law to pre
vent " the circula
tion in the South
ern States, through
the mail, of incen-
diary publications
Burning Mail-matter in Charleston.
intended to instigate the slaves to insurrection." Of course the pur
pose was to prohibit the use of the mails for the conveyance of any
thing that touched the question of slavery. The sagacity of Calhoun
was not at fault, when as chairman of the committee to whom the
subject was referred, he reported that it should be left to the States
to decide what was an incendiary publication. This was in accord
ance with his State-Rights theory, that the slave State should decree
and the Union execute; and he knew, besides, that even then there
were Northern members of Congress who would not consent to self-
stultification, but would demand the evidence of the existence of any
publication addressed to the slaves or designed, in the remotest de
gree, to excite them to insubordination, and that no such evidence
SLAVERY AND ANTI-SLAVERY. [CHAP. XIII.
could be found. Nor did the slave States need any such law. Six
Kitting the months before the message, the mails had been seized in
Charleston, S. C., and some few anti-slavery publications,
addressed to influential gentlemen for their possible enlightenment,
taken out and publicly burned. The precedent was one which every
postmaster at the South was ready to follow ; even the postmaster at
New York had assumed the power of rifling the mails of everything
which he thought might offend the South; and the Postmaster-gen
eral, Amos Kendall, had written to his subordinates both in Charles
ton and New York, justifying their assumed censorship of the press,
though, as he acknowledged, there was no law to authorize it.
But neither laws nor lawlessness, neither tyranny nor subserviency,
Therightof "either sagacity nor stupidity, could stay the tumult of dis-
petition. oussion that swept over the country. Every obstacle it met
only served to add to its strength, and on all sides questions arose in
unexpected ways that increased the agitation. The slaveholders and
the slaveholders' friends put into the hands of the anti-slavery people
a tremendous weapon, by denying them, for years, the right of peti
tion. Keeping carefully within the letter and the spirit of the law,
they prayed that Congress would exercise its undoubted right of abol
ishing slavery in the national domain under its exclusive control, and
of interdicting the domestic slave-trade. Their prayers would have
been soon silenced, had they been simply received and denied ; but
when the attempt was made to destroy even the right to pray, then
for every petition rejected there came a thousand new ones. For ten
years they were hurled like fire-brands as if against a fortress of
straw, and bastion and battlement were in a constant blaze and the
magazines in continual explosion. A few brave men in Congress,
led by John Quincy Adam's, fought that fight against all the forces,
Northern and Southern, of slavery. Session after session the attempt
to get the petitions before the House was defeated, by a standing
The Ather- l'u^e known as the "Athertoii gag" —so called from one
ton gag. Athertoii, of New Hampshire, who belonged to the class of
Northern " white trash," bearing the same political relation to the
slaveholders that the poor whites of the South occupied socially, too
degraded, that is, to be respected even by slaves. But session after
session the agitation widened, and the demand grew louder that when
Northern citizens spoke they should be respectfully listened to, no
matter what they said. When, in 1842, Mr. Adams presented a peti
tion from some persons in Massachusetts, asking for a dissolution of
the Union, and resolutions of severe rebuke were offered, his defence
of himself and of the right of petition aroused hundreds of thousands
of the Northern people to indignation and reflection upon the true
meaning of the conflict out of which that incident grew.
1835.] THE ATHKRTOX GAG. 339
The "Atherton g^g/' however, was only the perfected rule for
excluding from Congress the consideration of any subject reflecting
unfavorably upon slavery — though whatever favored it was never
prohibited and was always in order. The initiative step was taken
nearly three years before, in a resolution offered by Pinckney of
South Carolina, upon which Mr. Adams refused to vote, declaring,
" I hold the resolution to be a direct violation of the Constitution of
the United States, the rules of this House, and the rights of my con
stituents." The ground was thus clearly taken at the outset : on
the one hand the inviolability of Slavery, and, 011 the part of Adams
and a few others, the sacredness of the right of petition. The de
fenders of that right never yielded a single inch ; petitions were
sometimes presented by the hundreds in a single clay, and of the
thousands who signed them to assert the abstract right, many came
at length to feel hardly less interest in the immediate object of the
prayer. Pinckney's rule was renewed at the opening of the next
Congress, and Mr. Adams, a few days afterward, asked if a paper
in his possession, purporting to come from twenty-five slaves, would
be laid on the table, without any action upon it, under the rule.
The turmoil that followed, though paralleled many times since,
was then without a precedent in the halls of Congress. The mob-
ocratic spirit which ruled in Northern towns and cities, blazed up in
the House. It was gratuitously assumed that a petition from slaves
was a petition for their freedom, and the slaveholders and A ^^i^
the slaveholders' friends vied with each other in denouncing from slayes-
O
a proposition so monstrous, and the audacity of the man who dared to
ask for it a hearing. Public censure at the bar of the House was the
mildest punishment proposed for him; one member from South Caro
lina denounced him as having rendered himself liable to the penal
laws of the District of Columbia, and threatened, that should he per
sist in presenting such a petition, he would expiate the offence within
the walls of the penitentiary. The first onslaught of the storm soon
exhausted itself by its own fury : but it broke out again with renewed
violence when Mr. Adams reminded his assailants that he had not yet
presented the petition, but only inquired as to its probable disposition
under the rule if he should present it, and then informed them that,
whether genuine or not. it was not, as thev had assumed it must be,
for the abolition of slavery, but that slavery be let alone.
A similar and not less extraordinary scene occurred at the open
ing of the next session, when William Slade asked that a petition for
the abolition of slavery and the slave-trade in the District of Colum
bia be referred to a committee, with instructions to bring in a bill
granting the prayer of the petitioners. It was the first time such a
340 SLAVERY AND ANTI-SLAVERY. [CHAP. XIII.
proposal had been made, and the House was immediately in an up
roar. Slade was speedily silenced by points of order, which were as
quickly violated by Southern members with impunity. Representa-
secessionof tives from several Southern States called upon their col-
n"embe™ in leagues to leave the House, and when a motion to adjourn
the House. wag macje< au the members of those States were invited to
come together to take this ci'isis into consultation. Rhett called it,
in a report to his constituents, " the memorable secession of the
Southern members," and the word was cherished. He prepared
resolutions declaring it " expedient that the Union should be dis
solved," and that a committee be appointed of " two members from
each State to report upon the best means of peaceably dissolving it."
But another ugag" rule was passed the next day, and the South was
again appeased by enjoining silence, once more upon the North. It
only taught the North to think the more and talk the louder.
Elsewhere than in Congress events were constantly occurring at
that period — and from that time forward were constantly cumulating
— to intensify the public excitement, and to strengthen the North in
the final struggle which was at some time inevitable, and, it was now
evident, could not be long delayed. Not that such events had never
occurred before ; but that to the awakened observation and conscience,
to which the anti-slavery people were perpetually appealing, such
events no longer passed by unheeded. Thus, in 1839, the Governor
of Virginia demanded of the Governor of New York the ren-
Controvcrsy ., . „ ..,, ,...,.
between " dition of three sailors "as criminals charged with aiding a
New York
and vir- slave who had secreted himself on board their vessel to es
cape from bondage. The demand, a few years earlier, would
have 'been complied with without hesitation. But now no Abolition
ist of the extremest school could have taken higher ground than that
taken by Governor Seward in his refusal. The laws of New York,
he said, did not recognize property in man, and to aid a person, there
fore, to escape from slavery was not a crime. His exposition of nat
ural law and of the law of slavery was masterly and unanswerable,
and in the long controversy that followed, Virginia was driven to the
ultima ratio of the slaveholder — a tin-eat to dissolve the Union. The
Virginian Governor appealed for sympathy to the other States ; but
Mr. Seward was neither alarmed by threats, nor moved from his
position by an attempt at retaliation. While the controversy was
pending, he asked for the rendition of a forger who had escaped to
Virginia, and the request was refused until the prior demand of Vir
ginia was complied with. But on this point, the Governor of Vir
ginia went a little further than even his own Legislature would sus
tain him, and he indignantly resigned his office. An act was passed.
1839.] CONTROVERSY BETWEEN FREE AND SLAVE STATES. 341
however, requiring that all New York vessels in the ports of Vir
ginia should be searched when about to sail, on the presumption that
slaves were secreted on board ; and this law was to continue in force
till the alleged fugitives from justice, whom Seward had refused to
surrender, were returned and the recent act of New York, giving a
trial by jury to all persons claimed as fugitive slaves, was repealed.
The Governor was sustained by his own party, though the opposition
— the Democrats — in the Legislature, passed resolutions upholding
the pretence of Virginia to make the laws of New York subordinate
to her own.
A similar controversy arose between New York and Georgia, about
the same time, with a like result, in which the Governor New York
of the latter State, profiting by the experience of Virginia, and Geor«ia-
hoped to succeed in his purpose by stratagem. He demanded the
return of a colored sailor on board a New York vessel, on a charge
of stealing, first, a quantity of wearing apparel, and second, a slave.
Governor Seward chose to go behind the indictments ; according to
natural law, no crime had been committed in aiding a slave to escape
from bondage, and there was, therefore, no criminal to return ; and
the knavish cunning of the Georgians he refused to be taken in by,
as the clothes the man was charged with stealing were the clothes
worn by the slave who had attempted to escape. Georgia was also
unfortunate about the same time, in a controversy with Maine, where
a like demand for the rendition of an alleged fugitive from justice
was made and peremptorily refused. It was the old question, —
always recognized and inculcated as the fundamental principle of
state-craft at the South — of the subordination of the Union, and the
free States, to the law of slavery.
That the North was learning a new lesson, and learning it rapidly,
is plain to see when it is remembered that only four years before
Mr. Seward declared that New York did not recognize property in
man, a joint committee of the Massachusetts Legislature
. . Attitude of
had declared that " the right ot the master to the slave is Massachu-
setts
as undoubted as the right to any other property," and that
"• any attempt, whether direct or indirect, to deprive the slaveholder
of this property, as of any other, is a violation of the fixed laws of
social policy, as well as of the ordinary rules of moral obligation."
This report, signed by George Lunt as chairman of the committee,
was in response to the message of Governor Everett, in which he
commended to the consideration of the Legislature the demands of
five of the slaveholding States, that the discussion of slavery should
be made a penal offence. The rebuke of this pro-slavery fanaticism,
however, was not long delayed in Massachusetts. Only two years
342 SLAVERY AND AXTI-SLAVKKY. [CHAP. XIII.
later another joint committee of the Legislature — in a report de
claring that Congress had the power to abolish slavery in the Federal
domain, to interdict the domestic slave-trade, and to refuse admission
to the Union of any new slave State, — said, " There is little differ
ence of opinion in this Commonwealth as to the moral, social, and
political character of domestic slavery. It is regarded by all, or nearly
all, as a wrong in itself, and an evil in all its relations and influences.
.... The wrong is the greatest which man can inflict {upon his
fellow, and the evil deep, certain, and aggravated."' The chairman
of this committee was James C. Alvord, and the report one of the
firebrands which Adams shook in the face of Congress from session
to session, till the slaveholders were ready to tear him limb from
limb. Marshall, a member from Kentucky, acknowledged in open
debate that the venerable ex-president would probably be lynched
should he venture into that State, and threats of assassination were
sent him almost daily by mail from the South.
The position* taken by the governors of New York and Maine, in
answe\io the demands of slave States, was only one of the
Fugitive- , . A|
slave qucs- indications ot the rapid growth ot anti-slavery opinion at the
North. Events were leading to nice distinctions. If, for
example, to aid a man to escape from slavery was not recognized as a
crime in Northern jurisprudence, how happened it that the escaping
man must be returned to bondage ? Hitherto there was no question
anywhere, except perhaps among a few Philadelphia Quakers, as to
the return of fugitive slaves ; but the doctrine spread, that if there
were a bond for a pound of flesh, no drop of blood must be>tt)iiled in
tearing it from the living tissue. It is not likely that the number
of slaves attempting to escape was increased ; but those who did now
found a multitude of friends ready to invoke the law, so far as it was
possible, in defence of liberty, and where that could not be done,
there were many more who were swift to obey what they believed to
be a law higher than that of the Constitution. Thousands of fugi
tives passed stealthily through the free States, aided from point to
point, to a safe refuge in Canada ; others stopped 011 the way in
Northern cities, but always ready for further and instant flight if the
word of warning came, that the chase was on their tracks. Every case
that came before the courts aroused profound interest, and set men to
thinking upon the character of slavery, and the nature of funda
mental law. In every arrest that was made public, where no oppor
tunity was given, or none existed, for an appeal to judicial decisions,
the appeal to pity for the unfortunate fugitives Avas irresistible with
the thoughtful and humane. What right has one man to hold another
in bondage? How far shall the municipal law of the slave States be
1831).]
I'TGITIYK SLAVE QUESTION.
343
permitted to override all law in the free States, where the end of
government is the protection of the citizen in his right to life, to
liberty, and the pursuit of happiness ? As every incident in the
debates of Congress and of State legislatures, in the courts, in the
action of Northern governors, in the attitude of religious organiza
tions, in the persecution of individuals, and in the thousand attempts
of the mob to suppress free speech, aroused reflection and intensified
the struggle, so it was because the question of slavery had come be
fore the people in a new aspect, and was seen with anointed eyes.
Where did a man's right to himself begin, and where did it end?
In 1839 the United States brig Waxltinyton, Captain Gedney, over
hauled, near the coast, and
brought into New London, a
Spanish vessel, the Amistad,
having on board a number of
Africans, who had been kid
napped in their own country,
and sold as slaves in Cuba.
On their way to another Span
ish island in the West Indies,
they captured the vessel, under
the leadership of one Cinque,
killed the captain and cook in
fair fight, and put the rest of
the crew and the white passen
gers, among them their pre
tended owners, in confinement.
Knowing nothing of naviga
tion, they ordered one of the
Spaniards to steer the vessel
for Africa. He obeyed in the daytime, when his captors could tell
by the sun which way the vessel Avas heading, but at night TheAnnstad
he reversed her course, till he brought her upon the Amer- oasc'
ican coast. These men, born free, reduced to bondage contrary to
the law of nature and of nations, were thrust into jail to await a
trial, on the assumption that they were slaves and pirates. From
the State courts the case was taken up to the Supreme Court of the
United States, where the final decision was, that the prisoners had
been kidnapped in Africa and carried unlawfully to Cuba ; that their
present pretended owners had purchased them knowing these facts ;
that as they were not slaves they could not be pirates in taking the
measures they did to regain their freedom , and that, therefore, they
should be discharged. In the contest for justice to these helpless
Cinque.
344 SLAVERY AND ANTI-SLAVERY. [CHAP. XIII.
strangers, their friends were compelled to fight every step of the way
against the influence of President Van Buren's Secretary of State,
John Forsyth, of Georgia, and the Attorney-general, Felix Grundy,
of Tennessee, who were anxious that these men, who, had they been
white, would have been welcomed as heroes, should either be surren
dered as slaves, or sent back to Cuba to the merciless disposition of
Spanish law.
The fate that might befall these native Africans had no relation to
American slavery, except as it touched the abstract question of prop
erty in man. But this was enough, for the slaveholders never forgot,
and the North was beginning to learn, that on this question hinged
the whole controversy. But in 1841 there happened a similar occur
rence that came closer home. An American slaver, the Creole,
sailed from Richmond with a cargo of one hundred and
thirty-five slaves, gathered, not from the wilds of Africa, but
the slave huts and kitchens of the Virginia and Maryland planta
tions. Among them was one whose very name was revolutionary —
Madison Washington. This man knew something of liberty, for he
had been a fugitive in Canada, and had gone back thence to Virginia
to release his wife from bondage; but he had been retaken and sold,
as was usually done with those whose intelligent discontent marked
them as dangerous, for the depleting discipline and the safer distance
from Mason and Dixon's Line, of a southwest plantation. Early in
November, when the Creole was near the Bahamas, the black Wash
ington, putting himself at the head of nineteen of his fellows, whose
arms altogether were only four knives, attacked the crew, and after a
struggle, in which one white, a slave-trader, was killed, and the cap
tain and some others wounded, the blacks obtained possession of the
vessel. They compelled the captain to take her into Nassau, New
Providence, where those not immediately engaged in the revolt were
declared to be free. Washington and his eighteen companions,
who, the captain of the Creole demanded, should be surrendered to
him to be taken to the United States for trial for mutiny and mur
der, were detained ostensibly to be tried in the English courts. The
whole cargo was a loss to the slaveholders ; but there were thousands
of people at the North who persisted in considering it not in the light
of a loss of property, but as a restoration to one hundred and thirty-
five human beings of the liberty of which they had been robbed
since their birth. Calhoun, Clay, and other Southern senators de
nounced the English Government for stretching its protecting arm
over acts which they looked upon as piracy and murder, and for refus
ing to permit the United States to extend its slaveholding law into
its dominion. Not a voice in the Senate was raised to defend the
1841.] CASE OF THE CREOLE. 345
inalienable rights which Madison Washington and his companions
had asserted for themselves. Daniel Webster, the Secretary of State
of the acting President, Vice-president Tyler, wrote instructions to
Edward Everett, then Minister to England, which satisfied even
Calhoun. In the House of Representatives a scene of characteristic
violence ensued when Joshua R. Giddings, of Ohio, offered a series of
resolutions, the essential point of which was, that every man has a
natural right to himself, and that the slaveholding laws of the South
ern States, however potent they might be at home, whatever sanction
they might receive from the Federal Constitution, were void beyond
their boundaries. A vote of censure was immediately passed by an
overwhelming majority, and the bold member who thus challenged
the legitimacy of slavery, as instantly resigned his seat, and Resignation
before the sun set was on his way to Ohio to appeal to his of ^M™&.
constituents. " I hope we shall soon see you back again," said Adams
with emotion, as Giddings took leave of him. The wish was ful
filled ; the interval was long enough only for a new election, when he
was back with an increased majority of thousands. The doctrine ad
vanced by Calhoun was not new, but partly because of the peculiar
character of the case of the Creole, partly because of the agitation of
the public mind, it had never before attracted attention so serious.
Within the ten previous years three American vessels engaged in the
coastwise slave-trade had been wrecked at different times in the West
India Islands, or driven into port by stress of weather. So long as
slavery existed in her colonies, England consented to make compensa
tion for the American slaves who were thus liberated ; but after that
event she declined any such concession — would hardly acknowledge
that the principle involved was worthy of discussion.
Almost at the very moment that Congress was so hotly debating
the nature of slaveholding law, the Supreme Court of the The Pri
United States was pronouncing what that law was, so far ca8e-
as it governed the right of the recapture of fugitive slaves. Moi^e
than once in former years attempts had been made to induce Con
gress to put an end to the kidnapping of free negroes along the
border between the free and slave States ; but it had hardly been
possible to arouse attention enough to the subject to listen to a mo
tion. In 1826 Pennsylvania, after conferring with Maryland, passed
an act intended to prevent and punish kidnapping while, at the same
time, it enforced the returning of fugitive slaves, and prescribed the
method of seizure. In 1839 one Edward Prigg went into Pennsylva
nia, and, in disregard of the Act of 1826, carried out of the State a
colored woman. Margaret Morgan, and her children, to restore them
to a former mistress, Margaret Ashmore, in Maryland, from whom
346 SLAVERY AND ANTI-SLAVERY. [CHAP. XIII.
the woman and her children — except one born in Pennsylvania —
had escaped some years before. Prigg was brought to trial and found
guilty of kidnapping, not, however, because he had taken fugitive
slaves, but because he had taken them without regarding the method
prescribed by the law of the State. The case was carried to the
Supreme Court by agreement between the States of Pennsylvania
and Maryland, and its decision excited universal discussion, and quite
as universal surprise and resentment. Many learned, for the first
time, what the compromises of the Constitution really meant, though
few, probably, saw foreshadowed in this decision the Fugitive Slave
Act of 1850, and the decision of the same court in the Dred Scott
case in 1856.
The court declared that to secure to the slaveholders the complete
Decision of right and title of ownership in their slaves, as property, in
the court. every State of the Union, to which they might escape, was a
fundamental article of the Constitution without which the Union
could not have been formed. That this positive, unqualified right, no
State law could qualify, regulate, control, or restrain. That the slave
owner could seize his fugitive slave wherever he found him, if he
could do so without a breach of the peace, could seize, that is, one
claimed as a slave, without question of his right or title, in the streets
of Boston, as he would unquestioned in New Orleans or Charleston.
But though the Constitution thus executed itself, it was the duty of
Congress to enforce this right by special law, which it had done by the
Fugitive Slave Act of 1793 ; and as the right to legislate upon the
subject belonged to that body alone, all State legislation — whatever
its object, whether to protect its own citizens, to require evidence of
the legality of the ownership of the slave, or even to aid the claim
ant in the recapture — was unconstitutional and void. One privilege,
however, was left to the free States : they might forbid their own
magistrates to act, as the law of 1793 required them to do, though
the magistrates might act unless they were so forbidden. Yet under
their general police power, the States might pass laws for the arrest
of fugitive slaves, to remove them from their borders or otherwise
protect themselves, — a saving clause intended for the protection of
those States which presumed all colored persons to be slaves who
could not prove they were free, and sold them to the highest bidder
at public sale, if no owner appeared to take them away, which was
the law in the District of Columbia : and finally, the law of Pennsyl
vania of 1826 — a part of the title and object of which was, " the pro
tection of free people of color ; and to prevent kidnapping " - under
which Prigg was indicted, was pronounced unconstitutional and void.
By this decision the country was taught that the law of slavery wras
1841.] THE HUGO CASE. 347
supreme in the free as in the slave States; that the right of the slave
holder to his human property could tolerate, under the Constitution,
no interference even for the sake of protecting the liberties of free
men. It rudely interrupted the controversy then going on between
Governor Seward and the Governor of Virginia, by deciding that the
law of New York, giving the right of trial by jury to a fugitive slave,
was unconstitutional. ^There were differences of opinion among the
justices on some points of the decision, mainly upon whether Congress
had so exclusive a control of the subject as to prohibit any legislation
by the Statesj On this point Chief Justice Taney went far beyond
the Court, though agreeing with it in the main ; it was the duty of
the free State, he thought, to legislate, not for the protection of its
own citizens, or on behalf of any unfortunate person who might be
unjustly seized as a fugitive front labor, but to aid the slaveholder
everywhere in recapturing the slave. In the doctrines here advanced
by him was the germ of the decision in the Dred Scott case Dre(j Scott
in 1856, when Taney gave it as the opinion of the Supreme declslon-
Court, that as, at the adoption of the Constitution, the negro was
regarded as one who " had no rights which the white man is bound
to respect," so he was not, and never could be, a citizen of the United
States — the doctrine which at this moment, fifteen years after eman
cipation, rules the thought and the action of the South, that this is
"a white man's government."
So everywhere the anti-slavery agitation made its way, and con
vulsed the nation. And nowhere else was that agitation so pro
found, or the result more significant or more permanent, than in the
Church. The Southern Church, in its defence of slavery, The Church
was driven to maintain its divine character ; at the North and slavery-
the world and the Church were agreed that the cost of meddling
with the subject — of measuring Southern conduct and Northern re
sponsibility by the New Testament and the Declaration of Indepen
dence — would be too great. The chief religious organizations by
their acts and by their words gave the support of their enormous in
fluence and power to slavery, till one after another they divided into
New and Old, into the Church North and the Church South ; for the
earnest anti-slavery minority strove, year after year, to bring them to
deal with man-owning and man-selling, which they all condemned in
the abstract, as they dealt with other sins. No newspapers were so
bitter in their hostility to the anti-slavery movement as the religious
journals which represented the old organizations ; no one class of the
community reflected so faithfully and so zealously that hostility as
their clergymen ; keen as the eyes of the world were to detect the
colored intruder in any place of public resort, they were not so keen
348
SLAVERY AND ANTI-SLAVERY.
[CHAP. XIII.
as the eyes of the Church in discovering any trace of African blood
in one who should kneel in prayer anywhere but in the negro-pew,
or ask for admission to the Lord's Table. The natural and inevita
ble result was that in the end, while the Church could only hinder
and delay the emancipation of the slaves, multitudes of their own
members were emancipated from ecclesiastical domination. It was
no less an insult to the common sense than to the religious convic
tions of many serious Christians, that the General Assembly of the
Old School Presby
terians should reject
a resolution calling
upon them " to pu
rify the Church of
this great iniquity "
by treating it as
r ^i ""'!
other sins of great
magnitude." For
while declaring
that they did "not
think it for the ed-
ifi cation of the
Church for this
body to take any
action on the sub
ject," the same
meeting declared
" p r o m i s c u o u s
dancing " to be so
" entirely unserip-
tural," and "so
wholly inconsistent with the
spirit of Christ," and with "pro
priety of Christian deportment and
purity of heart," as to call for the ex-
They did not choose to remember that
in the Southern churches, which they "fellowshipped," there was no
rebuke for that promiscuous relation between the men and women
of three millions of people which had taken the place of legal and
Marriage Christian marriage. In North Carolina and Georgia it had
been considered for the edification of Baptist associations to
declare that where husband and wife were separated by
sale, for the pecuniary benefit of the master, either might take a
The Negro-Pew. [An Actual View.]
ercise of Church discipline.
among
Slaves.
1841.]
THE QUESTION IN THE CHURCHES.
349
new husband or a new wife. It was difficult to evade the question, if
these people were men and women, and not brutes to be held as prop
erty, whether their pretended owners were to be recognized as unof
fending Christians by churches which maintained the right of disci
pline over their members. It was a question which shook the Church
to its foundations and could not be stilled. As the gradual encroach
ments of the slaveholding dynasty proved how grievously the second
and third generations had departed from the political faith of the
founders of the Republic, so the anti-slavery agitation in the churches
showed that they had fallen away even more lamentably from the
testimonies and the discipline of earlier days. From the sowing of
such seed, the red harvest was ripening.
CHAPTER XIV.
PROGRESS OF SOUTHERN RULE.
THE SECOND SEMIXOLE WAR — REMOVAL OF THE CIIEROKEES — COST OF A SLAVE-
HUNT. — TROUBLE ON THE CANADIAN FRONTIER. — BURNING or Tin: CAROLINE. —
TRIAL OF McLEOD. — THE LOG-CABIN CAMPAIGN OF 1840. — DEATH OF PRESIDENT
HARRISON. — SUCCESSION OF VICE-PRESIDENT TYLER. — HE BREAKS WITH THE
WHIGS. — His SOUTHERN POLICY. — THE ASHBURTON TREATY. — EASTERN AND
NORTHWESTERN BOUNDARIES. — THE DORR WAR OF RHODE ISLAND. — THE AN
NEXATION OF TEXAS. — THE MANNER AND PURPOSE OF IT. — ELECTION or JAMES
K. POLK. — WAR WITH MEXICO. — ITS RESULTS. — ANNEXATION OF CALIFORNIA.
THE second Seminole War, though begun under the administration
second scm- °^ Jackson, dragged slowly through all the years of that of
Van Buren, and was not, indeed, quite finished till the sum
mer of 1842. It was a war, like all other Indian wars, for the pos
session of the lands of the natives; but it arose primarily — like the
former war with the Seminoles — from a wish to reduce to slavery the
maroons of Florida, and the determination of South Carolina- and
Georgia not to have so near their borders an asylum for fugitive slaves.
It was not because the Seminoles were not sufficiently peaceable when
unmolested, that their removal to a reservation beyond the Missis
sippi was demanded ; the chief reason for hostility against them was,
that they would not give up to slavery the blacks who by long asso
ciation and intermarriage had become identified with their tribe, and
who in the swamps and Everglades led a free and happy, if a savage
life. So long as this state of things continued, Florida was not practi
cally slave territory, and to make slave territory was the object of the
purchase from Spain.
A treaty had been signed at Camp Moultrie, a few miles south of
St. Augustine, in 1823, by which the Indians were confined to a res
ervation on the eastern peninsula ; but this did not cure the difficulty,
and the territorial Legislature petitioned Congress for their
Treaty of
removal. By the Treaty of Payne's Landing, negotiated in
May, 1832, it was stipulated that seven chiefs of the Semi
noles should examine the country assigned to the Creeks, west of the
1832.]
THE SEMIXOLES.
351
Mississippi, and if they found it satisfactory, and that the two tribes
could live together amicably, the Seminoles were to be removed thither
Avithin three years ; surrendering all their lands in Florida, and receiv
ing fifteen thousand dollars and an annuity, besides certain supplies.
It was also stipulated that the demands for " slaves and other prop
erty " stolen or destroyed by the Seminoles should be investigated,
and, if proved just,
be liquidated by the
United States to the
amount of seven
thousand dollars.
President Jackson,
determined that the
Seminoles should re
move at all hazards,
sent a special com
mission to the West,
to convince the seven
chiefs that the coun
try was eminently
desirable, and a sup
plementary treaty
was obtained from
those seven, who
signed it without con
sulting the rest of the
tribe.
A portion of the
Seminoles were un
alterably opposed to
removing, as they
feared to come under
the domination of
the Creeks, from
whom they had se
ceded eighty years before. Among the leaders of this party was a
young chief named Osceola, son of a half-breed woman and Osceola aml
an Englishman. His wife, the daughter of a slave, had his party-
been treacherously seized and carried off, to be surrendered to her
mother's master. At a council, Osceola drew his knife and drove
it into the table, saying, " The only treaty T will execute is with
this!" The exact point of the controversy turned upon the interpre
tation of a pronoun in the Treaty of Payne's Landing. The pream-
352 PROGRESS OF SOUTHERN RULE. [Cn AI-. XLV.
ble, after providing for the mission of the seven chiefs, stipulated that,
''should they be satisfied with the character of the country," etc., the
removal was to take place. President Jackson held that " they" re
ferred only to the seven deputies ; Osceola and his party held that it
referred to the opinion of the whole tribe after they should hear the
report of the deputation. Osceola's party swore to punish with in
stant death any Indian who should prepare for removal, and the threat
was executed upon one of the chiefs.
Hostilities broke out in 1835, and under Osceola's leadership the
Dade'smas- Semmoles were aggressive, vigilant, and merciless. In De-
sacre. cember, Major Francis L. Dade, with about a hundred and
forty men, set out from Tampa Bay on an expedition against the hos
tile Indians. When they reached the Big Withlacoochee, they were
fired upon by an unseen foe, and Dade and nearly half of his men
fell at the first volley. The remainder took shelter behind trees, and
the skilful service of a six-pounder with grape and canister drove oft'
the Indians, who had been hidden in the tall grass. The survivors
of Dade's command immediately erected a small breast-work of logs ;
but in less than an hour the savages returned in immense numbers,
and fired steadily upon the little band from every direction, till all
were shot down. After they had gone with the arms and accoutre
ments, a band of negroes came up and butchered the wounded, except
two who escaped. Three days later, General Clinch defeated, on the
Withlacoochee, a band of Seminoles under Osceola.
The Territory was now in a general state of alarm. The settle
ments in the interior were broken up, and the white inhabitants
General flocked to the larger towns and forts. General Gaines with
Gaines. seven hundred men sailed from New Orleans in February,
1835, landed at Fort Brooke on Tampa Bay, and attempted a march
across the country. But as he was without sufficient provisions, and
had no knowledge of the ground, he was soon compelled to turn
back, and was attacked at a point on the Withlacoochee where he
had expected to find a ferry. While he constructed rafts, he was
held in close siege by the Indians, and would perhaps have been de
feated, had not Clinch finally come to his assistance. General Scott,
who resented Gaines's movement as " interloping," then assumed
command in Florida. The Indians improved every opportunity to
murder express riders and isolated families and to cut off wagon-
trains,1 and attacked in force the post at Micanopy, but were driven
off. The summer of 1836 was exceedingly sickly, and the forces at
all the posts were depleted by disease. Fort King and Fort Drane
1 It was said that these outrages were often the work of white men in disguise, and in
two cases this was proved to be the fact.
THE tsKCOND SEMIXOLK WAR.
353
had to be abandoned, and later in the summer Micanopy, — which
gave up a large tract of country to the Indians. In an action near
Newnansville, the Indians were defeated, and in the autumn a force
under General Call routed them on the Withlacoochee, but failed to
drive them from the Wahoo Swamp.
Once more a change of commanders was tried, when General
Thomas S. Jesup superseded Call, with eight thousand General
men, and entered upon a winter campaign. The Indians JCSUP
were forced from their positions on the Withlacoochee, and pursued
toward the Everglades, till in February, 1887, they sued for peace.
Nevertheless, five
days afterward they
made a determined
though unsuccessful
attempt to take Fort
Mellon. In March,
at Fort Dade, five of
the chiefs signed an
agreement to cease
from A\Tar, and await
the decision of the
Government as to
whether they might
remain in Florida.
General Jesup hav
ing vainly urged
that such permis
sion be given, about
seven hundred In
dians and negroes were secured before the decision was announced to
them, and sent off to Tampa for shipment. Osceola and a few others
were sent to Charleston as prisoners, where Osceola soon died of
grief. In May, 1837, General Zachary Taylor succeeded Genonil
Jesup. The remaining Indians and maroons were now so Ta-vlor-
wary, and scattered themselves so widely in the swamps and woods,
that it was exceedingly difficult to follow them with an organized
force. Jesup had taken measures to procure bloodhounds Useoniiooll.
from Cuba, to track the refugees ; perhaps because a dog houndii-
of more sagacity was needed than the common hound trained for
negro-hunts on the Southern plantations. Taylor and the Administra
tion approved the plan, and thirty-three hounds, with five Spaniards
to manage them, were imported from Cuba, at an expense of several
VOL. iv. 23
A Cuban Bloodhound.
PROGRESS OF SOUTHERN'- RULE.
[CHAP. XIV.
General
Worth.
thousand dollars.1 But the dogs, trained only to track negroes, would
not take the scent of an Indian, and proved useless.
Taylor's plans were disarranged by the President, who sent Gen
eral McComb to make peace with the Indians, and though Taylor
had defeated them at Okechobee on Christmas day, 1837, he too
was obliged to retire from the command, which then devolved upon
General W. R. Armistead. During all this time, robbery and massa
cre had been going on, and as fast as small parties of Seminoles and
negroes were captured they were sent to the reservation beyond the
Mississippi — all save those whom any individual slaveholder chose to
claim as his property. One more change of commanders was resorted
to, when General William J. Worth, a man of more ability and more
discretion than any of his predecessors, in the spring of 1841 suc
ceeded Armistead. In a summer campaign, Worth's troops,
in small parties, ascended the rivers and penetrated the
swamps to the islands, where they destroyed not only the shelters of
the enemy but many of the crops
on which they must depend for
the next winter. Worth then
made use of a chief who had
been brought to Tampa in irons,
to secure a peace. Assuring
him that he (Coacoochee) was
a powerful chief, and could bring
the war to a close, Worth bade
him name five of his fellow cap
tives and set a time which should
be long enough for them to reach
the tribe, and tell them that un
less they appeared at Tampa and
gave themselves up within that
time, Coacoochee and his fellow prisoners would be promptly hanged.
In a few days they surrendered themselves, and from this beginning
General Worth soon received the surrender of all the bands, and sent
them to the West.
The war was ended at last, and it only remained to count the
gains, and the cost. Somewhat over five hundred persons
William J. Worth.
ana tin;' had been reduced from freedom to bondage, and Florida
That was the
result.
was no longer an asylum for fugitive slaves.
1 " I wish it distinctly understood," wrote the General to the Department, " that my
object in employing dogs is only to ascertain where the Indians can be found, not to worry
them." And the Secretary of War, Hon. Joel K. Poinsett, of South Carolina, who had
anthori/ed the purchase of the hounds, outdid Taylor in his humane notions, directing that
the dogs be " mu/./,led and held in leash while following the.
1837.] TROUBLE ON THE CANADIAN FRONTIER. 355
gain. The cost had been about forty million dollars — twice as much
as was paid for the territories of Louisiana and Florida together, —
and an unknown number of lives. It was estimated that for each
person reduced to slavery, eighty thousand dollars and the lives of
three white men had been expended.
But the war, long and costly as it was, as it dealt only with Indians
and negroes, seemed, at the moment, of less consequence than a men
ace of hostilities on the northern border. A rebellion broke out in
Canada in 1837, and so great was the sympathy for the insurgents
on the American side, that General Scott was sent with a small
regular force, and with power to call upon the Governors of New
York and Michigan for volunteers in case of any serious Destruction
difficulty. In spite of the efforts to maintain the neutrality Sneta^0"
of the United States, a small American steamboat, the asaraRlver-
Caroline, made regular trips across Niagara River to carry supplies
to a party of five hundred insurgents on Navy Island. Captain
Drew was sent from Chippewa with a considerable force on the 29th
of December, 1837, to capture this vessel. Not finding her at Navy
Island, Drew crossed to Grand Island, which was American territory,
boarded her, and, in the struggle with those on board, killed twelve
of them. The boat was towed into the stream, set on fire, and left
adrift to be carried down the rapids and hurled over the falls of Ni
agara.
The Government of the United States at once demanded redress;
but no definite and satisfactory reply could be obtained for three
years. But in 1840, one McLeod, who boasted that he had partici
pated in the affair, and had "killed a damned Yankee" with his
own hands, visited the American side of the river, where he was
under indictment for murder. He was at once arrested, and held for
trial. The British Government promptly came to the rescue with
a demand for his release, on the ground that what he had done was
an act of war, performed under the orders of his commanding officer,
for which he could not be punished by any civil tribunal. The Pres
ident replied that no answer had yet been received to the question,
asked three years before and many times repeated, whether the de
struction of the Caroline was an authorized act of war ; and that, in
any case, the Administration had no power to prevent a State court
from trying persons indicted within its jurisdiction. The Ministry
assumed a hostile attitude, and threatened war in case McLeod were
not released. The trial proceeded after the regular forms, and seemed
likely to bring the two countries into conflict ; but this calamity was
happily averted by a verdict of acquittal on the question of fact.
It was proved that McLeod had been asleep in Chippewa at the time
PROGRESS OK SOl'TIIERX RULE. [Cn.\r. XI V.
of the affair, and his story was wholly the product of his imagination.
The natural excitement to which such a trial and its possible results
gave rise was intensified by the attitude either of indifference or
obstinacy assumed by the acting President, Tyler. In spite of the
indignant remonstrances of Governor Sevvard, a United States Dis
trict Attorney for New York was permitted to act as counsel for
McLeod, and retain his office, presenting the remarkable spectacle of
a law officer of the Government attempting to prove that in a case
which might lead to war his own Government wTas wrong.
The political revolution of 1840, by which Mr. Van Bur en was
defeated, and General Harrison elected, was, as we now know, an
entire surprise to the President himself. Looking back upon
soneani- it, it is easy to see that dissatisfaction with the mechanical
administration of party power, had as much to do with the
change as the popularity of the new President, or any measures to
which his partisans were committed. The financial crisis of 1837 had
spread to every part of the country. The West at last felt the
" pressure," as the pecuniary disturbance was popularly called, as
much as the financial centres. The attitude of the Government in
refusing any effort for temporary relief, irritated men who could sell
nothing, could buy nothing, and had debts to pay. Still the State
elections of 1839, as has been seen, had been favorable to the Admin
istration. They seemed to confirm Mr. Van Buren in his appeal to a
"sober second thought," which became fora generation proverbial.
The Whig members of Congress proposed a national convention, to
which should be intrusted a nomination for the Presidency — the first
in the series of such meetings, which in their turn were to outgrow
their usefulness. This convention was held at Harrisburg on the 4th
of December, 1839, fifteen mouths before the President to be elected
could take his chair. The firmness of the opposition appeared at once
in the representation. Every State sent delegates, except South
Carolina, Georgia, Tennessee, and Arkansas.
On the first ballot Mr. Clay had one hundred and three votes. Gen
eral Harrison ninety-four, and General Scott fifty-seven. On the
fifth ballot one hundred and forty-eight votes were given to Harrison,
and he was named as the candidate. John Tyler, of Virginia, was
named as the Vice-president. It was the custom afterward to speak
of him as an accident. But at the period of the Convention the
leaders of the new-formed party had no such confidence of success
that they could neglect support anywhere. They wanted the votes
of all who were disaffected toward Mr. Van Buren. The State of
Virginia threw twenty-three votes at that time. All these had been
given to Mr. Clay in the Convention. It was clearly wise to concil-
1840.] THE LOG-CABIX CAMPAIGN. 357
iate so strong a State, and the nomination of Mr. Tyler was due to
the desire to do so.
The canvass which followed this nomination began a new era in
elections. The same changes in travel which had made the >Iags.meet.
Convention possible made possible immense gatherings of '
the people at central points, for what was called the " ratification " of
the nomination of the opposition. Only too late did the leaders of
the Administration party learn the value of such mass-meetings, as
they came to be called. On the 4th of May nearly twenty thousand
young men gathered at Baltimore, the largest assembly ever held in
the country. More than one thousand came from a State as distant
as Massachusetts. The only object, of course, was to show the at
tachment of the members to the cause they upheld ; they showed it
in songs, in the applause of eager speeches, in fervid resolutions, and
adjourned to meet in Washington at the inauguration of General
Harrison on the 4th of March. At the same time the smaller Con
vention, authorized by the Democratic leaders to make their nomina
tions, met in the same city. 'Mr. Van Buren was named as the
candidate for President unanimously. But for Vice-president no
nomination was made, and the determination was left to the respec
tive States.
The popular canvass which followed was marked with the same
differences as those which characterized the two Conventions. The
Whigs held everywhere those enormous, jovial meetings, and the
Administration party ridiculed them as unworthy the occasion. The
parts played by the Jackson men of 1825 and their antagonists
seemed to be wholly reversed. In the midst of the canvass, a phrase
thrown out by a Baltimore journal,1 in its ridicule of General Harri
son, gave a rallying cry to the opposition which was remembered for
a generation. The editor said of Harrison that if anybody origin of the
would give him a pension of a few hundred dollars and a l^A^mlci-
barrel of hard cider, he would sit down in his log cabin con- der s-vmbols-
tent for life. Some happy observer in the West seized on the un
fortunate sneer. To ridicule the log cabin, in which every West
ern man was born, ill became the representative of the democracy of
Andrew Jackson. From that moment the " log cabin " became the
symbol of the opposition. Log cabins were set on wheels and drawn
in processions. Large log cabins were built in the midst of crowded
cities, to be used as rallying places for the faithful. Ardent politi
cians wore log-cabin buttons and handkerchiefs, and smoked log-cabin
cigars. Even laundresses advertised that they were able to do up
shirts in the most approved log-cabin style. Log-cabin songs were
1 The Baltimore H<'/>nl>/icai>.
358
PROGRESS OF SOUTHERN RULE.
[CHAP. XIV.
heard everywhere, — often sung with choruses of tens of thousands,
— uniting in enthusiasm for "• Tippecanoe and Tyler too.''
Between such popular excitement on the one side, and the decorous
methods -of the Administration, the prestige which Andrew Jackson
had given to Mr. Van Buren vanished. His only considerable
van Buren -a strength, as it proved, was that which he had gained by his
position. loyalty to the South. That loyalty even Calhoun — for
years his rival and political enemy — could not doubt: for Van
Buren, as President
of the Senate, had
given, in 1886, his
casting vote in favor
of Calhoun's bill
making it a penal
offence in postmas
ters knowingly to
permit any anti-sla
very matter to be
delivered from the
mails ; and he had
assured the South
that he " must go
into the Presidential
chair the inflexible,
and uncompromising
opponent of any at
tempt on the part of
Congress to abolish
slavery in the Dis
trict of Columbia,
against the wishes of
the slaveholding
States." And even in this he gave the benefit of a doubt to the
slaveholders, for, as he said in the same letter, he was not quite sure
that Congress had not complete power over the subject in the District.
The nomination of John Tyler by the Whigs did not give them Vir
ginia. That State, with South Carolina and Alabama, voted for Van
Buren. His friends only carried Illinois, Missouri, and Arkansas, in
the West, all small States then-, — and the ever-faithful New Hamp
shire, in New England. All the Middle States voted for Harrison,
though this was the section to which Mr. Van Buren himself belonged.
It was not the first nor the last instance in which a candidate for
the Presidency could not gain the support of the region from which
Martin Van Surer
1841.]
ACCESSION OF TYLER.
he came. These few States, loyal to the memory of Jackson and the
instructions of Calhoun. could only give the President sixty votes ;
the one hundred and seventy-five electoral votes of the other States
were given to General Harrison. His majority of the ballots given
by the people themselves was about 146,000 in a vote of 2,403,000,
of all the States but South Carolina. In that State the Legislature
threw the vote, and no precise estimate, therefore, could be made of
the popular preference.
On the 4th of April, after a short illness, the President died, at the
age of sixty-seven years — the first chief magistrate of the Harrison's
United States who had died in office. In his brief term he dcath'
had retained the Western openness of which his friends had boasted :
he had permitted himself to be
overwhelmed by visits of those
who would congratulate, would
advise, or would seek office, and,
fairly exhausted by such de
mands on his good nature, the
strong constitution gave way,
which had not quailed in fron
tier life or Indian warfare. His
death brought into office, by the
united vote of the Northern States,
a Virginian, whose whole public
life had committed him to the
State Rights theory, as Jeffer
son proclaimed it. The next
four years proved that Mr. Tyler
was a person with whom self-
conceit led to arrogance, while
it blinded him to considerations of a large, national policy, even
if he were capable of grasping one. The control of the Accession of
Executive office by a bigot to the Southern policy, precipi- Tyler-
tated, as it proved, what has since been called the irrepressible con
flict. At the outset, the Cabinet, and Mr. Clay, who held quite as
large a share as Mr. Webster in leading the party, tried to persuade
themselves that Mr. Tyler would be true to the power which had
made him what he was. He took the oath prescribed for the Presi
dent " for greater caution," although he considered that no other
oath was necessary than that which, as Vice-president, he had already
taken. In an address to the people, he expi-essed the opinion that
there should be a radical change in the method of appointing the
agents entrusted with the custody of the public moneys. He de-
PROGRESS OF SOUTHERN' RULE. [CiiAi-. XIV.
nounced removal from office for none but political reason, but said
that active partisanship was sufficient reason. As to the financial
embarrassment of the country and the relation to it of the Adminis
tration, he condemned the Sub-treasury Act of Van Buren, and said
he should give his sanction to any constitutional measures which
Congress might propose for the restoration of a sound cir
culating medium. The address was received with satisfac
tion by the Whigs, as announcing good Whig doctrine. But the
extra session of Congress, summoned by President Harrison to meet
in May, soon showed that the President meant to have a policy of
his own. In this first message he recognized the veto of the United
States Bank as approved by the nation, — the failure of the State
bank system was obvious, — but as some " fiscal agent M was neces
sary, the selection of that agent should be left to the wisdom of Con
gress, and any constitutional measure, he promised, should receive
his approval.
Whether Mr. Tyler then meant to break with the Whig party and
its leaders, has never been made known. In truth, he was not a man
of whose purposes or intentions much need ever be said, so freely
was he moved by impulses, whether of flatterers or of passions. The
understanding that he had doubts as to the rights of Congress to es
tablish fiscal institutions anywhere within the States, led to a plan
for a central bank in the District of Columbia. The certainty that
his views were speculative or theoretic rather than such as were de
rived from a practical knowledge of finance, and a wish to apply it
in a practical way, led Congress to the unusual course of asking the
Secretary of the Treasury to submit a plan for a fiscal agent. Mr.
Ewing accordingly submitted such a plan. The details are now of
no importance. The opposition iu the Whig party and out of it was
strong enough to change the project materially before the President
received it for his signature, and returned it with his veto. He
objected especially to the discount power of the proposed branches.
Congress was persuaded by the leaders of the Whig party to pass a
new bill which did not grant the privilege of discount banks. This
also was vetoed by the President on the 9th of September, on the
ground that it created " a national bank to operate per s?
His vetoes "
over the Union." With this veto came a final breach be
tween him and the party that had elected him. The Cabinet, ex-
( epting Mr. Webster, resigned. They put their resignation on the
ground that he had not kept faith with them. They were careful to
say that he was entitled, of course, to his opinion on the subject of
the Bank. But they declared that he had asked his Cabinet to stand
by him and procure the passage of such a bill as he now vetoed.
1841.] TYLER BREAKS WITH THE WHIGS. 361
They had done so, and the President had then failed to keep his
promises. To these attacks no reply was made ; perhaps none could
be made. From that moment to his death, his reputation for polit
ical integrity was lost with the country.
The consequences of this first struggle between the President and
the Whig party were of much more importance and signifi- Financial
cance than any that attached to it as a mere financial affairs-
measure. The rapid increase of the country in wealth, soon gave rise
to operations in exchange and other details of finance so large that
the business of the Government was no longer of special importance ;
and the simple, almost Arcadian, device of the Sub-treasury proved
quite sufficient for the administrations of the next twenty years,
which were always spending up to the very edge of their income.
Mr. Tyler's declaration of personal independence threw him and the
country into the arms of the extreme Southern interest, at a moment
when it seemed as if that interest had received its severest check.
Van Buren had played the part of a " Northern man with South
ern principles," till he had hesitated to open the door of the Union
when the slaveholders knocked for the admission of Texas. His
recompense was the scanty vote of four Southern States, — while he
was deserted everywhere else but in New Hampshire, Illinois, and
Missouri. So stern a lesson was given, even thus early, to the alli
ance between the Northern Democrats and the Southern slaveholders.
But the moment when Tyler broke with the party which chose him,
he fell back for support upon his own State and the extreme South.
He soon made close alliance with Calhoun, and what was left of his
administration was devoted to an extreme Southern policy.
Of this change of policy the annexation of Texas to the United
States was the first result. The first communication which pj^upxoian
citizens of the United States had with that territory was in inTexaa-
a few expeditions made by Philip Nolan, an adventurous Kentuckian,
for the capture of wild horses. He made these expeditions in 1801
under license of the Spanish government of New Orleans. But so
jealous was the Spanish Crown of encroachments from the United
States, that by special order from Spain, the Spanish Governor of
Chihuahua surrounded Nolan's party, killed him, and took them pris
oners, in entire violation of his pass of safe-conduct. From that time
to 1820, a. series of incursions were made into the territory by adven
turers from the western part of the United States, — all of whom
were driven off, or killed, or imprisoned by the Spanish authorities.
In 1820, however, Moses Austin, an American, obtained a grant of
land in Texas, and his son Stephen Austin in 1822 took a body of
colonists to settle there.
362
PROGRESS OF SOUTHERN RI.'LE.
[CHAI-. XIV.
By the constitution of Mexico, slavery was prohibited in Texas,
The Texas an(^ that alone was sufficient reason why the South should
question. wisli to control it. Separation was the first step to be
taken ; the rest would follow. Jackson, when President, tried to
buy the province, as Adams had done before him, but this failing,
other measures were resorted to.1 Mr. Poinsett, the Minister to
Mexico, wrote home that kt we can never expect to extend our bound
ary south of the Sabine without quarrelling with these people."
The quarrel was undertaken by General Samuel Houston, a Tennes-
seean, and a friend of the President's, who went to Texas, ostensibly
as an emigrant, actually as a revolutionist. All this was an open
secret hardly disguised, never seriously denied. In the autumn of
1835 the province declared its independence ; in the spring of 1836,
— about a month after the siege of Alamo, where the Texan garrison
was killed to a man, — the decisive battle .of San Jacinto was fought,
1 Adams in his Diary savs that "Jackson was so sharp-set for Texas, that from the first
year of his administration he set his double engines to work, of negotiating to buy Texas
with one hand, and instigating the people of that province to revolt against Mexico with
the other. Houston was his agent for the rebellion, and Anthony Butler, a Mississippi
land-jobber in Texas, for the purchase. Butler kept him for five years on the tenter-hooks
of expectation, negotiating, wheedling, promising, and finally boasting that he had secured
the bargain by bribing a priest with half a million of dollars." That method of negotia
tion, however, Jackson absolutely forbade. The priest was to compass his end by the use
of influence; precisely how, can only be conjectured, — but he was the father-confessor of
the sister-in-law of Santa Anna, the Mexican President.
1844.] TYLER'S POLICY.
Houston being in command of the Texans ; Santa Anna, the Presi
dent of Mexico, was taken prisoner, and he agreed that the inde
pendence of Texas should be acknowledged.
When the newspaper report of this event reached Washington,
and before any official tidings could be received, the Senate,
in indecent haste, took up the question of recognition, propose"
Calhoun urged, not merely recognition, but immediate an
nexation. The times were not yet ripe, however, for that measure,
and all that could be done at the moment \vas to provide by a resolu
tion, offered by Clay, that the independence of the State should be ac
knowledged when there was sufficient evidence that she could main
tain it. Another year passed, and that evidence was not forthcoming.
Then, only three or four days before the expiration of Jackson's term
of office, an amendment was made to the appropriation bill providing
for the pay of a diplomatic agent to Texas, as an independent power,
should the lacking evidence of her ability to be one be received by
the President. Andrew Jackson was not the man — as the reader
has seen in more than one instance — to be hampered by legislative
restraints if they stood in the way of his purposes. Almost the last
act of his official life was to sign the appropriation bill with this
amendment, and immediately appoint the official agent to Texas,
thereby acknowledging her independence. The first step in the
great conspiracy to get possession of territory large enough for five
new slave States, was secure.
From that moment the project of annexation was pushed with
great persistence, but without much apparent success till about the
middle of Tyler's administration. It was charged that a corrupt in
terest in well-nigh worthless Texan stocks influenced Ty- T,.ler-s
ler's counsels ; it can hardly be questioned that speculations Position-
in Texan lands gave great vigor to the proposed measure. But it was
the interests of States, not of individuals, that gave to the scheme its
importance and strength. An ex-president of Texas, but a native of
the United States, — General Mirabeau B. Lamar, — when on a visit
to Georgia in 1844, wrote a letter in reply to a request to deliver a
public address, in which he sets forth with great frankness the rea
sons for annexation, — with the more frankness, probably, Uainar-s
that his letter was addressed to a Southern audience, printed lctter-
obscurely in a Southern city, and not intended for Northern reading.
Annexation, he said, "addressed itself with special and peculiar force
to the people of the South." On the question of slavery their in
terest and that of Texas were identical, and the "• overthrow of the
system in either country would lead to its extirpation in the other."
There was great danger of that catastrophe. The majority of the
364
PROGRESS OF SOUTHERN RULE.
[CHAP. XIV.
people were not the owners of slaves ; if the independence-: of the
State were much longer deferred, — Mexico under the alleged influ
ence of England refusing it till slavery was prohibited, — this ma
jority of non-slaveholders might soon begin to ask, " How long shall
we suffer for the benefit of slaveholders?" And this majority was
constantly augmenting by the immigration of free laborers, while the
timid slaveholders, with laborers that were property, held back till
annexation should settle the question. " I do not see how it is pos
sible," he said, " in her present unacknowledged condition to main
tain it [slavery] against the tremendous efforts which will be made
for its subversion. And when slavery gives way in Texas, the ruin
of the Southern States is inevitable." That ruin, he predicted,
might come within half a century,
through the moral influence of
a great free republic on the south
west, combining with all the rest
of the world " in a sleepless cru
sade," while slaves, for whom
there was no outlet, would so
accumulate that they would ex
haust the soil of the Southern
States, cease to be valuable to
their owners, and become a bur
den. But if Texas was annexed
to the Union, how brilliant a
future was presented to the slave
States ! In that immense and
fertile region was an almost ex-
haustless field of wealth in rais
ing cotton by slave-labor, an al
most exhaustless market for the surplus crop of negroes at the South.
This, in brief, was the argument of this remarkable letter, and no
Abolitionist could have stated the case with more frankness or with
more truth. It covered the whole ground.
When Texas asked for admission during Van Huron's administra
tion, and the President declined, it killed him politically. Mr. Web
ster's unwillingness to abet it, as Tyler's Secretary of State, caused
his removal from the Cabinet. He tried to persuade his
The ques
tion of a.l- old friends at the North to interest themselves in united
mission.
opposition to the measure, and failed ; and this failure, it
was supposed, was one source of the irritation which he afterwards
showed when the anti-slavery sentiment of the country sought his
help in vain. Before long the country knew that the danger was
Sam Houston.
184-2.] THE AS1IBURTOX TREATY. 865
real. Mr. Webster Avas removed, and Mr. Upshur of Virginia took
his place.
Had Mr. Webster's public career come then and there to an end,
his memory would have been revered for his devotion to principle.
As a statesman he had already signalized his administration of the
office of Secretary of State by the adjustment of the boundary ques
tion with Great Britain, Avhich had been for more than half
a century a menace to the peace of the two nations. Lord burton
Ash burton was sent by England to this country in 1842
on a special mission, ami the terms of a treaty Avere agreed upon be
tween him and Mr. Webster. The most difficult question in the set
tlement related to the northeastern boundary defining the limits of
the State of Maine. Between the line claimed by England and that
claimed by Maine, — for which her people were at one time anxious
to involve the country in war, — lay a territory of over twelve thou
sand square miles, or larger than the whole of Vermont. Much of
it is of little Avorth, either for agriculture or for any possible military
operations. The worst part of the route of Arnold's expedition
against Quebec in 177-"), lay through this tract, ami that operation
Avas never likely to be repeated. The line Avas agreed upon as it
now stands on all modern maps of Maine, giving to the United States
seven thousand square miles of the disputed territory, and to Great
Britain five thousand, Avith a stipulation for free navigation of St.
John's River. The northern boundary of Vermont and NCAV York
Avas supposed to be the forty-fifth parallel of latitude. But it had
been shown that the line surveyed as such was slightly erroneous,
and a correction of it Avould have thrown Rouse's Point, and a narrow
strip of land held in good faith by citizens of Vermont, on the Canada
side. It Avas agreed not to make the correction.
On the northwestern boundary, St. George's Island, containing
forty square miles, in the passage betAveen Lakes Superior and Huron,
Avas given to the United States ; as was also Isle Royale, near the
Avestern end of Lake Superior. The line Avas thence traced from
the mouth of Pigeon River up through the chain of rivers and small
lakes to the Lake of the Woods, and thence along the forty-ninth
parallel to the Gulf of Georgia, on the Pacific coast, — as it now
stands on all good"Tfnq)s.
The Treaty also provided for the rendition of fugitives charged in
either country with "the crime of murder, or assault to commit mur
der, or piracy, or arson, or robbery, or forgery, or the utterance of
forged paper," on the production of sufficient evidence to Avarrant
the arrest and trial of the person so accused in the place Avhere he
.should be found. And it also gave pledges of renewed efforts to sup-
366 PROGRESS OF SOUTHERN RULE. [(.'HAP. XIV.
press the African slave-trade. Ratifications were exchanged at Lon
don in October, and the Treaty was proclaimed by the President on
the 10th of November. It was officially designated as the Treaty of
Washington, but was popularly called the Ashburton Treaty. The
opposition in England called it " the Ashburton capitulation ; " and
fault was also found with it in the United States, as conceding too
much to England, though it was probably as good a settlement as
could then have been made.
By a subsequent Treaty ratified in July, 1846. the boundary-line
was continued westward from the Rocky Mountains along the forty-
ninth parallel to the middle of the channel between Vancouver's
Island and the continent, thence southerly through that channel and
Fuca Straits to the Pacific, reserving the right of navigation in the
channel and straits to both parties. For more than twenty years
Oregon had been, by agreement, in the common occupancy o,f Great
Britain and the United States, subject to termination by either party
at twelve months' notice. The expediency of giving the notice was
the subject of long and heated debate in both Houses of Congress
during the winter of 1845-46. There was much talk of war ; patri
otic members — as one of them said — "had rather make that ter
ritory the grave of his fellow-citizens, and color its soil with their
blood, than to surrender one inch of our soil." It was for the bound
ary of 54° 40' — "fifty-four forty or fight," was the cant phrase of the
hour — that these belligerent members were so ready to lay down the
lives of their constituents ; but the final settlement of this long vexed
question on the forty-ninth parallel was acquiesced in by the people
at large with entire equanimity.
The year was marked by another event, which wore, at one time, a
The Dorr threatening aspect. Though technically it was a rebellion,
War- and though it may be questioned whether the object aimed
at could not have been attained in a less turbulent way, the reform
at last secured was one which should have been granted long before.
Rhode Island was still governed by her old colonial charter, by which
the right of suffrage was restricted to freeholders, by ownership or
lease, and to their eldest sons, and the popular representation, under
the old apportionment, had become exceedingly unequal. Thus Prov
idence was given four representatives in the lowrer house of the Legis
lature, and Newport six ; but in 1840 Providence had twenty-three
thousand inhabitants, and Newport but eight thousand. Similar dis
crepancies existed in other parts of the State, so that in the Legisla
ture of that year twenty-nine thousand of the inhabitants were rep
resented by seventy members, and eighty thousand by thirty-four
members. Here wras reason enough for popular discontent.
1841.] THE DORR WAR IX RHODE ISLAND. 867
Repeated and vain appeals to the Legislature to take measures for
a reform of the Constitution failing, the people at length took the
matter into their own hands. A new Constitution was formed by a
popular convention in October, 1841, submitted to the people in De
cember, and accepted by a majority of the votes of the male adult
population of the State. Under it an election was held the following
April, and Thomas Wilson Dorr was chosen Governor. The crisis
was reached on the 3d of May, when Dorr, and the other State officers
elected with him, attempted to assume the government and were re
sisted by those who held office under the charter, at the head of whom
was Governor Samuel \V. King. Both sides took up arms, and an
appeal was made to the Federal Government. The Dorr party were
twice — May 18th and June 25th — dispersed without bloodshed.
Dorr was convicted of high treason, and sentenced to imprisonment
for life, but after three years was released under a general amnesty,
and in 1851 was restored to full citizenship. Meanwhile the Legis
lature — yielding to the inevitable — had called a convention to draw
up a constitution ; but its work, submitted to the people in March,
1842, was rejected. Another convention was called, and another con
stitution was formed, which, being satisfactory to the people, was rati
fied, and went into effect in May, 1843.
The negotiations with Texas, at once opened by Secretary Upshur,
were suddenly interrupted by his death.1 The President then called
to his assistance the master to fill the place of the man. In the last of
March, 1844, he made Mr. Calhoun Secretary of State. He
believed in the annexation at any cost, and no scruples on any comes s«pre-
man's part now retarded the negotiation. Mr. Tyler justi
fied his invitation to Texas to join the United States by what he
thought, or pretended to think, the certainty that Great Britain was
engaged in diplomatic intrigue to abolish slavery there. Four Prctexts for
times — in verbal assurances to the American Minister at annexatlon-
London, Mr. Everett, and in written assurances to the English Min
ister at Washington, Mr. Pakenham — Lord Aberdeen had declared
that his Government had not interfered, and did not intend to in
terfere with slavery in Texas. It suited Mr. Calhoun to assume the
contrary, and to take measures therefore to annex that State to the
United States for the protection of slavery, — the one paramount
function of the Federal Union. He made a treaty with Texas, which
was sent to the American Minister at Mexico to communicate it to
the Government. He represented that the efforts which Great Britain
was making to abolish slavery compelled the United States to make
the treaty without the assent of Mexico. But he offered Mexico ten
1 He was killed by the explosion of a cannon on board the Princeton, in the Potomac.
:]68
PROGRESS OF SOUTHERN RULE.
[CHAP. XIV.
million dollars as indemnity. On the same day the treaty was sent to
the United States Senate, where it was rejected by a vote of thirty-
live to sixteen. It had not even the support of the Democratic party.
Mr. Benton opposed it hotly, but was supposed to carry an old ani
mosity to Calhoun into his objection. Mr. Van Buren, wTho was the
prominent candidate of the Democrats, in the pending election, pub
licly opposed it also. Mr. Clay, who was the Whig candidate, led his
party with this question as the great issue of the Presidential campaign.
The opposition of these statesmen sealed their political fate. The
Election of Democratic Convention nominated Mr. Polk of Tennessee,
who was in favor of annexation, and Mr. Van Buren's public-
life was over. Mr. Benton by his opposition lost the favor of Missouri.
The Whigs had nom
inated Mr. C 1 a y
unanimously ; but the
sincerity of his oppo
sition to annexation
was not believed in
by the anti-slavery
voters, and he lost the
support of both New
York and Pennsyl
vania. In New York
a sufficient number of
voters gave their vote
to the candidate of
the new Liberty Par
ty, James G. Birney,
to give Mr. Polk a
plurality; and in
Pennsylvania he
avowed moderate
tariff sentiments, just
in time to secure a majority there. These two States, which together
gave sixty-two electoral votes, decided the election. Mr. Polk's plu
rality in New York was only 5,106 out of a vote of 485,000, and
his plurality in Pennsylvania was only 6,3-32 out of 350,000 votes.
Though he had not a majority in the popular vote, his electoral vote
was 170, against 105 for Mr. Clay.
The certainty of this result stimulated the action of the dying
Congress. The new candidate used all his influence to obtain an
adjustment of the matter before his inauguration. As a treaty with
Texas was impossible, a vote of two thirds of the Senate being nec-
James K. Polk.
1845.] ANNEXATION OF TEXAS. 369
essary, a joint resolution annexing Texas was introduced. It passed
the House after a protracted discussion, which rent in two
the Democratic party, to which a section of the Northern by joint
part was never again united. A proviso was annexed,
necessary to meet some men's constitutional scruples, which pro
vided that the new President might act, if he preferred, by treaty.
The Senate, which in April, 1844, had rejected the treaty, by the vote
of thirty-five to sixteen, was induced to accept the joint resolution.
This was the 1st of March, when President Tyler's term had three
days to run. On the same day when the joint resolution passed, Mr.
Calhoun sent a messenger to Texas to bring her in under the joint
resolution. Mr. Polk had promised that he would act under the treaty
proviso, but as Mr. Tyler had taken the responsibility of acting under
the joint resolution, Mr. Polk considered himself discharged from his
promise. Thus in the confusion of the last moments of a Congress,
and of an administration, the annexation of Texas was carried, as
under precisely similar circumstances the acknowledgment of its in
dependence had been carried eight years before. So, by a resort to
similar tactics, the Missouri Compromise had been forced through the
House in 1820, and the Nullification Compromise in 1833.
Polk came into power with the certainty of a war with Mexico on
his hands. Before Secretary Upshur was killed, Mr. Van Polk^
Zandt, one of the Texan ministers at Washington, had ad- P°IIC>-
dressed him a letter, asking whether, in case of annexation, Texas
could rely upon the United States for aid against Mexico ? Mexico,
it was assumed, would end the armistice then existing between her
and her revolted province, and the negotiations then going on for
peace, and renew, or threaten to renew hostilities. The inquiry
was made in January, 1844, but was not replied to by Mr. Cal
houn, Upslmr's successor, till the following April. The reply was
for some time withheld from the papers sent to the Senate. In
the mean time the treaty had been rejected, and it seemed, there
fore, of comparatively little consequence then that the Secretary had
assured the Texan ministers that in expectation of the ratification of
the treaty, a strong naval force had been sent into the Gulf of Mex
ico, and all the disposable military force ordered to the southwestern
frontier. The significance of this preparatory movement was better
understood when, in the following March, annexation was accom
plished by joint resolution.
The United States army, in 1845, numbered about five thousand
men, and three thousand six hundred of them were at Cor- Warwitll
pus Christi, Texas, under General Zachary Taylor. In Mexico-
March, 1846, Taylor moved southward to a point on the Rio Grande
VOL. iv. 24
370 PROGRESS OF -SOUTHERN RULE. [€IIAP. XIV.
opposite Matamoras, at the same time calling' upon the Governors of
Louisiana and Texas for five thousand volunteers. On the 1st of
May he moved eastward with his main body, to open communication
with Point Isabel. To intercept his return, the Mexican General
Battle of Arista moved -with about six thousand men to Palo Alto,
nine miles from Matamoras, and planted his force across
the road. Taylor's returning column struck this position on the 8th,
and gave battle. Two eighteen-pounders and two light batteries made
dreadful havoc in the close ranks of the Mexican infantry, while an
attempt to turn the American right was promptly thwarted. The
prairie-grass between the contending lines took fire, and behind the
curtain of smoke Arista drew back his left. Taylor made a corre
sponding change, advanced his artillery again, and renewed the fight.
A movement to turn the American left was discovered through the
smoke, when two guns were wheeled round to meet it, and under
their steady fire the attacking column was finally put to flight.
Early next morning the Mexicans fell back to Resaca de la Palma,
and took position on both edges of a deep ravine that
Battle of
Kesacadeia curved somewhat in the shape of a horseshoe, the open side
Palma. _ r
toward the advancing Americans. The point where the
road crossed this ravine was commanded by three batteries, and the
whole position was obscured by thick chaparral. Taylor deployed a
large part of his force as skirmishers, and Captain May's dragoons
overran the most advanced Mexican battery. An American battery
was advanced to the crest, while a regiment from the reserves charged
down the road in column, crossed the ravine, and, joined by a portion
of the skirmishers who had clambered through at other points,
seized the enemy's artillery, and after hard fighting in the chaparral,
put the infantry to flight. On the 13th of May, before news of
these events could have reached Washington, Congress declared war
and authorized the President to call for fifty thousand volunteers for
one year.1
1 President Polk, in his message of May lf>, 1846, and iu several later ones, labored to
show that the territory of the United States had been invaded l>y the Mexicans, and the blood
of her citizens shed on her own soil, whereupon Abraham Lincoln, then a member of the
House of Representatives, introduced in that body what became famous as " the Spot Res
olutions," wherein the 'President was called upon to inform the House as to the exact loca
tion of the spot where this blood was shed, with reference to the boundaries of the Spanish
possessions, and also " whether our citizens whose blood was shed, as in his messages de
clared, were or were not at that time armed officers and soldiers, sent into that settlement
by the military order of the President ; " and "whether the military force of the United
States was or was not so sent into that settlement after (General Taylor had more than
once intimated to the War Department that, in his opinion, no such movement was neces
sary to the defence or protection of Texas." Mr. Lincoln's speech, supporting these res
olutions, and making a sharp analysis of the whole question, is printed in full in Lamon's
Lift of Lincoln, p. 28.'i.
184G.]
WAR WITH MEXICO.
371
General Taylor was told that the public were impatient, and with
out waiting for reenforcements lie must " take foot in hand, and off
for the halls of Montezmna," he being distant from those halls nearly
live hundred miles, as the crow flies. Before he could open his cam
paign, he was embarrassed by conflicting instructions, but gave it as
his opinion that the operations from the Rio Grande should only be
for the purpose of holding the northern provinces. His movements
were also delayed by -the necessity of sending for light-draught
steamers to ascend the river. These and the volunteers arrived at
length, and in July General Worth's division established itself at
Camargo, where Taylor organized an expedition to Monterey, ninety
miles distant.
While this movement was in prog
ress, one of those revolutions without
which her people never seem content,
broke out in Mexico, and the garri
sons of Vera Cruz and San Juan de
Ulloa pronounced for the return of
Santa Anna to power. Commodore
Connor, commanding a squadron that
had blockaded Vera Cruz, was or
dered to permit Santa Anna, who in
1845 had been banished for ten years,
to reenter the country ; and Presi
dent Polk, to create a feeling that his
war was just, sent a proposition to
negotiate for peace, knowing that, in
the disturbed condition of Mexican
affairs, it was not likely to be entertained. By the middle of Sep
tember, Santa Anna reached the city of Mexico and assumed military
command as President.
Monterey is in a valley at the eastern base of the Sierra Madre, on
the high road from the Rio Grande to the city of Mexico. Captim>of
It was protected by a strong citadel on the northern out- Monterey-
skirt of the town, by several lunettes on the east, and by two forti
fied hills that rose on either side of the river just above the town.
Taylor, with six thousand six hundred men, sat down before it on the
19th of September. On the '20th, Worth's division passed above the
city and planted itself on the enemy's line of retreat. Garland's
brigade led the attack, and advancing between the citadel and the
first lunette, and enfiladed by both, reached the streets of the city, but
with heavy loss. Three companies, moving to his support, attacked
the lunette in front, but at the first discharge of its guns one third of
372 PROGRESS OF SOUTHERN Rl'LE. [CiiAi-. XIV.
r
their numbers fell, and the remainder retreated. Two other compa
nies passed to its rear, and from the roof of a tannery poured into its
open gorge such a fire of musketry that the crowded Mexicans, on
whom every bullet told, made all haste to abandon the work, which
Quitman's brigade soon occupied. An attempt to capture the second
lunette was unsuccessful, as the streets through which the troops ad
vanced were swept by an artillery fire, and the loss was severe.
On the morning of the 21st Worth sent a strong force to capture
the fortified eminence south of the river, called Loma Federacion.
The enemy not only directed a plunging artillery fire upon the ad
vancing troops, but sent a cloud of skirmishers half way down the
rocky slopes to resist the ascent. In the face of this the Americans
advanced steadily by companies, with sharpshooters skirmishing on
the flanks, till they clambered over the parapet and turned the
guns upon the flying Mexicans, who took refuge in Fort Soldado,
at the extremity of the ridge. Thence they were quickly driven
by two supporting regiments moving along the slope. At night
Worth sent out a detachment which at daybreak carried Loma dTn-
dependencia, the hill on the north side of the river, and then dis
lodged the Mexicans from the ruins of the Obispado, half way down
the hill. These two positions commanded the western half of the
city, upon which fire was opened, and on the morning of the 23d the
troops east of the city fought their way into it ; but the streets were
barricaded and stoutly defended, and the attempt on that side was at
length given up. On the west, however, AVortlfs men pushed into
the town, fully prepared for a slow fight. When they reached a
point where the streets were swept by Mexican artillery, the troops
of the line broke through the inner walls of the houses, and thus
worked their way from square to square, while the sharpshooters
mounted to the roofs, and by a continual dropping fire did effective
work. This steady advance was continued through the night, and
in the morning Ampudia capitulated, and an armistice of eight weeks
was agreed upon.
In May a movement was made in a new direction. Colonel Philip
Kearny was ordered to organize an expedition for the occu-
Occupation ° . . , , ,
of NOW pation of ?sew Mexico and Upper Calitorma, and by the
end of July he had collected eighteen hundred men, at Bent's
Fort, on Arkansas River, at the head of whom he marched into New
Mexico unopposed, and arrived at Santa Fe on the 18th of August.
Here he issued a proclamation declaring the inhabitants absolved from
allegiance to Mexico, organized the State as a Territory of the United
States, appointed a civil governor, and on the Oth of October, with
a small cavalry force, set out for California.
1847.] WAR WITH MEXICO. 373
An exploring expedition under Captain John C. Fremont was
overtaken in May, by a messenger bearing letters'from Sec
retary of State James Buchanan and Senator Benton, where- of CaiHor-n
in it was hinted that he should remain in California, to
thwart any designs that foreigners might have upon the territory.
As no foreigners but Americans were at all likely to have any such
designs, it was not difficult for Fremont to understand what the Ad
ministration wanted, though war haxl not then been declared. He
returned to Sacramento, learned that De Castro, the Mexican com
mandant, was about to expel American settlers, and at once assumed
the offensive. On the loth of June he captured Sonoma, after which
he marched into the interior, enlisted men, and returned in time to
drive away De Castro. He then called a meeting of settlers at Sonoma,
and advised them to declare independence, which they did. Meanwhile
Commodore Sloat was taking possession of the towns on the coast.
Late in July he was superseded by Commodore Stockton, who organ
ized an expedition, drove De Castro out of his camp at Los Angeles,
joined Fremont, and on the loth of August took possession of Monte
rey, then the capital of California. Proclaiming his conquest of the
territory, he set up a provisional government, with himself at its head.
Before the news of this reached Washington, the Government had
sent to California a company of artillery, in the storeship Lexington,
which was two hundred days making the passage round Cape Horn.
In this company were Lieutenants William T. Sherman, Henry W.
Halleck, and E. O. C. Orel. The ship was commanded by Theodorus
Bailey, who, sixteen years later, led the first division of Farragut's
fleet when it captured New Orleans.
In pursuance of its purpose to cut off the northern provinces, the
Administration planned an expedition to Chihuahua, under
command of General John E. Wool ; but it went no farther agahMtchi.
than Parras, a hundred miles west of Monterey. Taylor's
armistice at Ampudia was disapproved by the Administration, and in
November he advanced to Saltillo. In the same month, General Win-
field Scott was ordered to Mexico, to take chief command and gcott fient to
conduct the war according to his own plan. This was, in Mexico-
brief, to carry an expedition against Vera Cruz, reduce its defences,
and then march on the city of Mexico by the shortest route. On
his arrival at Camargo in January, 1847, he maele a requisition for
about ten thousand of Taylor's troops, which left Taylor not quite
seven thousand. A duplicate of the despatch was intercepteel and
carried to Santa Anna, who at once prepared to strike while his enemy
was divideel and weakened.
Taylor hael advanced to Agua Nueva, but learning ol! the approach
PROGRESS OF SOUTHERN RULE. [CHAP. XIV
PL AN OPTHE BATTLE
OF
BUENA VISTA
of an overwhelming Mexican force, and knowing that his rear might
Battle of ke gained, he fell back to a strong position south of Saltillo.
luuma vista. rpjie now famous battle-ground, which takes its name from
the neighboring estate of Buena Vista, is a section of a rugged val
ley from two and a half to four miles wide, between mountain walls
a thousand feet high. The slopes on either side are cut by deep
ravines, and in the midst is a broad plateau, whose borders are in
dented by the bluffs that alternate with the ravines. The fighting
took place on and
around this plateau.
Taylor had present
five thousand two
hundred men : San
ta Anna's force was
probably twelve
thousand.1 The na
ture of the ground
precluded the em
ployment of cavalry,
and rendered use
less much of the ar
tillery of the attack
ing party, while it
gave special advan
tages to that of the
Americans. Taylor
placed his forces —
in groups, rather
than in line — on
the crests of some of
the bluffs, at the
base of the eastern
mountain, and near
the front or southern
edge of the plateau.
The battle opened in the afternoon of the 22d of February on the
left, where the light Mexican troops attempted to flank the position
by scaling the steep mountain wall, but were checked by a counter
movement. At the same time the Mexican cavalry, under General
Mifion, gained the rear by a detour, for the purpose of attacking the
1 It lias been commonly stnted at twenty thousand ; but there seem-; to be no other au
thority for this than the fact that when Santa Anna snmmmieil Taylor to surrender, he
bonsted that his force numbered twentv thousand.
MEXICAN (
UNITED STATESs
Infanty to CttYdlrjr ty Artillery Moving latfie
i (nfwtiy iii titvdlry i|i Artillery Receiving lAe AttAcK.
1847.] WAR WITH MEXICO. 375
Americans in their expected retreat. At dawn of the 23d the action
was renewed on the left, where the Mexicans had taken possession of
the crest during the night. Santa Anna prepared to attack in front
with his main force, in three columns, intending that the light troops
should at the same time descend from the mountain and fall upon the
flank. Under Taylor's personal direction, the Mexican cavalry in the
rear was driven back by the dragoons. These being ordered to the
plateau, the Mexican horse returned and attacked two unsupported
companies of volunteer cavalry, and a fierce hand-to-hand fight en
sued, friend and foe being mingled in confusion, around the hamlet of
Buena Vista : but on the return of the regular dragoons, the Mex
ican cavalry retreated. The Mexican columns attacking in front,
came on steadily in spite of all resistance. Two regiments fled before
one of them, which then, with a heavy battery, concentrated its fire
upon an advanced American battery, and soon compelled its with
drawal. The column next made a junction with another, which had
also ascended the plateau, and with the light troops moving down
from the mountain, and the combined mass turned the American left.
The third column, led against the American right, was shattered by
the artillery, thrown into confusion, and compelled to retreat. To
meet the flank movement, the Americans had formed a new front.
The Mexicans found it impossible to cross the plateau in the face of
this, and were attempting to gain the rear by skirting the base of the
eastern mountain, when Taylor put in motion two regiments of infan
try, supported by artillery and dragoons, who advanced down the
plateau in the face of the enemy, steadily firing into the hea\7y mass
as they approached it. The coolness and intrepidity with which this
movement was executed, saved the day. The Mexican column broke
before it, and Taylor, making a combined attack upon their right,
drove it up the slopes of the eastern mountain, and seemed likely to
isolate it. But at this moment a flag of truce appeared, and the fir
ing was stopped in expectation of a surrender. It was only a ruse,
which enabled the endangered wing to escape. As soon as this was
accomplished, Santa Anna formed his whole force into one column,
and advanced up the plateau. Several regiments gave way, and some
guns were lost : but most of the artillery was placed where it could
plough the column through and through, and was served with great
rapidity. At the same time the Americans slowly fell back, and at
nightfall they held only the northwest corner of the plateau. When
morning broke, the enemy had retreated. The Americans had lost,
killed, wounded, or missing, seven hundred and forty-six men ; the
Mexicans, about two thousand.1
1 Among the slain were Colonels John .T. Ilnnlin, William R. McKce, and Archibald
376 PROGRESS OF SOUTHERN RULE. [CHAP. XIV.
On the 7th of March, the fleet with Scott's army came to anchor a
few miles south of Vera Cruz, and two days later he landed
Scott's ex- . . - _ . J
volition to his whole force — nearly twelve thousand men — by means of
Mexico. , __ _^
surf-boats. Vera Cruz was a city of seven thousand inhabi
tants, strongly fortified. About a thousand yards off shore, on a reef,
stood the Castle of San Juan de Ulloa, commanding the channels of
the harbor. This was supposed to be very strong, and the Mexicans
had assumed that any approach to the city would necessarily be under
its guns. Lines of investment were drawn, and siege batteries erected,
• k^S >'~^^^^s^-
A^-v j^_r- ~ ^\ t.^K-^-^ .i-*-^»^
'.— - • ~-4 ~3~~-~~ • ^ "
_4~-^ _ - •"" — '»--£."•/
Vera Cruz.
with little opposition. On the 22d the investment was complete. A
summons to surrender being refused, the batteries opened,
Bombard- .
mentof and the bombardment was kept up for tour days, the small
Vera Cruz. r f L . J
war-vessels joining in it. I he Mexican batteries and the
castle replied with spirit, and with some little effect : but the city and
castle were surrendered on the 27th.
The want of draught animals and wagons delayed till the middle
Battle of °f April the march upon the capital of the country, two
' hundred miles distant. The first obstacle was found at
Cerro Gordo, fifty miles northwest of Vera Cruz, where the Mexicans
Yell, and Lieutenant-colonel Henry Clay, a son of the Kentucky statesman. Some idea of
the desperate nature of the fighting may be gained from the fact that Colonel Clay, dis
abled by a shot in the thigh, was borne off in the retreat till his: men were obliged to drop
him, and then lay on his back, fighting with his sword, while his enemies pierced him with
lances. Colonel Yell received a lance in his mouth, which tore off his jaw ; and Colonel
Hardin was also killed with a lance. The Mexican cavalry did a great deal of execution
with that ancient weapon. Among the troops that rendered most efficient service on the
American side were the Mississippi riflemen, commanded by Colonel Jefferson Davis.
1847.] WAR WITH MEXICO. 377
had taken position on the heights around a rugged mountain pass,
with a battery commanding every turn of the road. A way was
found to flank the position on the extreme left, and on the morning of
April 18th, the Americans attacked in three columns. Pillow's brigade
advanced against the Mexican right, where three hills, in the angle
between the road and the Rio del Plan, were crowned with batteries.
Shields's brigade made the detoui* and, climbing up by a path that
Santa Anna said he did not believe a goat could ascend, fell upon the
enemy's left and rear. The divisions of Twiggs and Worth left the
road at a point within the pass, and, bearing to the right, attacked
the enemy on a hill called El Telegrafo, carried it, and then, attacked
the height of Cerro Gordo, where the Mexicans were most strongly
intrenched, and where Santa Anna commanded in person. This being
carried by storm, its guns were turned first upon the retreating Mex
icans, and then upon the advanced position that Pillow was assault
ing in front. The Mexicans, finding themselves surrounded, soon
surrendered. Santa Anna, with the remainder of his troops, fled
toward Jalapa, where Scott followed him and took the place. Here
lie waited for reinforcements, the last of which arrived on the 6th of
August under Brigadier-general Franklin Pierce.
At this point, Santa Anna opened secret negotiations with Scott,
offering to bring about a peace without any more fighting, in Santa Anna
consideration of one million dollars to be paid to him person- ^^^^
ally: ten thousand dollars at once, and the remainder after foraPnce-
the establishment of peace. The communications were made through
the British consuls. Scott paid the ten thousand dollars ; but Santa
Anna failed to convince the Mexican Congress that the situation was
desperate, and the temper of the country seemed to warrant the de
termination to hold out in hope of a victory.
After calling in all the garrisons except that of Vera Cruz, Scott had
about fourteen thousand men, and leaving the convalescents
to garrison Puebla and to care for the sick, he resumed his on the capi-
rnarch toward the capital. On the 10th of August the lead
ing division passed over the crest of the Rio Frio mountains ; the
city of Mexico, in the midst of a fertile basin dotted with spark
ling lakes, was in sight. Northeast and southeast of Mexico, within
a radius of twenty miles, are three lakes. The land immediately sur
rounding the city was entirely under water at the time of the Spanish
invasion, but it had been drained, and the capital was now approached
by causeways crossing low and marshy ground. Out of this plain
rose numerous rocky hills ; and wherever one commanded a causeway,
it was fortified. Reaching Lake Chalco, the one farthest from the
city, to the southeast, the American forces paused for a choice of
378 PROGRESS OF SOUTHERN RULE. [('HAP. XIV.
route. It was found that the city was strongest on its eastern side,
and weakest on the south and west. Accordingly, Scott passed around
Lake Chalco, and thence west, skirting the southern shore of the lake
that was nearer the city.
Santa Anna, who had been guarding the eastern approaches, moved
southward to intercept the Americans, taking up his headquarters at
San Antonio, five miles from the city. His position was flanked on
the west by a rugged field of broken lava, called the Pedregal, and
on the east by marshy ground. West of the Pedregal another road
led to the city, and this road could be reached by a mule-path across
the southwest corner. Pillow's division was converted into a work
ing-party to make of this mule-path a road for the passage of the
trains. But the Mexican General Valencia had taken up a fortified
Battle of position on the slope of a hill commanding the junction of
Contreras. ^.jie mule.path with the road, and not far from the village
of Contreras. In front of this camp was a deep and rugged ravine.
When Pillow had completed half the road, the Mexican artillery
opened upon him. Twiggs's division passed to the. front, and drove
in the Mexican skirmishers. Twiggs then ordered Riley's brigade
to cross the Pedregal by an oblique movement to the right, to secure
a position on the road at the village of San Geronimo, and flank the
Mexican left. Cadwallader's brigade was sent to his support, while
Pierce's reenforced Smith's at the front. The ground was as bad
as troops were ever compelled to clamber over. General Pierce was
severely hurt by the fall of his horse, which had stepped into a cleft
of the rocks ; and later in the day Twiggs, though on foot, received a
similar fall and injury. The artillery horses and caissons were shel
tered behind huge blocks of stone ; but the howitzers, which had been
advanced with immense labor, were no match for the heavier guns of
the Mexicans.
Valencia had neglected to occupy the crest of the hill in rear of
his camp, and Riley proposed to occupy it in the darkness of the
ensuing night, and swoop down upon him at daybreak. Meanwhile
Santa Anna sent orders to Valencia to spike his guns, destroy his
stores, and retreat by the mountain paths : but Valencia refused to
stir, and Santa Anna left him to his fate. Riley's movement, de
layed till daylight, was discovered, but the men pressed on, supported
by the brigades of Cadwallader and Smith. Taking the Mexican
intrenchments in reverse, they rushed into them in a body. One
regiment cut off retreat southward, while Smith stopped it north
ward. The Mexicans were thrown into utter confusion ; many were
cut down on the spot, others escaped through the gaps in the Amer
ican lines: more were made prisoners by the troops of Smith and
1847.] WAR WITH MEXICO. 879
Shields, thrown across the road to the city. The loss of the Mexi
cans in killed and wounded was estimated at two thousand, while
nearly a thousand, including four generals, were captured. Twenty-
two guns and all the stores and ammunition fell into the hands of
the victors, who had lost sixty, killed or wounded. The Americans
followed the flying enemy toward Churubusco, on the main Batt]cof
road to the capital, where Santa Anna, retiring before churubusco-
Worth, had concentrated his whole force. The river here runs in a
straight, artificial channel, protected by levees. The head of the
bridge was strongly fortified, and the convent, a large stone building,
had been pierced for the use of muskets, and surrounded by a strong
field-work. Here all was ready for action, but the remainder of the
Mexican force was in much confusion, and the fortification around
the bridge was blocked up by the ammunition train which had broken
down at this point.
The battle opened, when the advance of Worth's forces, charging
the works at the bridge, was stopped by a heavy fire from the con
vent. At the same time Pillow took position in the corn-fields on
the right, and Twiggs made a determined but useless attack on the
convent. This building, says an eye-witness, "• was one sheet of
flame and smoke, and wherever the assailants were exposed, their
loss was excessive." ] The brigades of Pierce and Shields had been
ordered to make a detour and come upon the main road in the rear of
Churubusco. As they reached it, they struck the Mexican reserves,
and all the troops on both sides were then engaged. The fighting was
obstinate and bloody throughout. Pierce and Shields were largely
outnumbered, and would perhaps have been defeated, but Worth and
Pillow carried the head of the bridge in time to save them. Their
men, creeping closer and closer, taking advantage of every ditch and
dike, yet with sad losses, at last established themselves so close to the
Mexican left that it gave way. A detachment of Americans crossed
the river and threatened the bridge from the rear, and immediately
Worth drew his whole force to the right, across the road, and poured
it in upon the broken Mexican line. Through the ditches, waist-deep
in water and over the parapets, they went with a rush and a shout, and
the battle of Churubusco was won. A captured gun, being brought
to bear at close range upon the flank of the reserves, broke it, and
relieved Shields and Pierce. A gun at the bridge was then served
upon the convent, and a position was discovered where a battery
could command the surrounding field-work, but as this battery was
about to open fire, a white flag rose above the walls. The American
loss in this battle was one thousand killed or wounded, among them
seventy-six officers.
1 Major R. S. Riplcy, in liis History of tfi<> ]Vor with Mexico.
380
PROGRESS OF SOUTHERN RULE.
[CHAP. XIV.
Battle of
Moliuo del
Key.
The Americans now occupied several villages in the suburbs of
the capital. At the instance of the English Embassy, who came out
from the city, an armistice was agreed upon. Negotiations followed,
lasting for a fortnight, till Scott, finding that Santa Anna only aimed
to gain time and strengthen his position, put an end to the armis
tice. The American commander now had about eio'ht thousand
O
five hundred effective men, and sixty-eight guns. His first
movement, September 7th, was upon the Molino del Key
(King's Mill), a group of stone buildings where, he had been
informed, the church-bells of the city were being cast into cannon.
This group forms the western
side of the enclosure surround
ing the gardens, rock, and castle
of Chapultepec. It is eleven
hundred yards from the castle,
and that is about a mile and a
half from the city wall. The
buildings, five hundred yards
long, had been barricaded and
loopholed, and provided with
sand-bag parapets. Five hun
dred yards west of the northern
corner was the Casa Mata, a
strong, square, stone building,
also prepared for defence. Be
tween these positions the Mex
icans had planted a four-gun
battery, and stretched a line
of infantry. When he sent
Worth's division, on the even
ing of the 7th, to destroy the supposed foundry, Scott was not aware
that the enemy had occupied the position in force. When Worth
discovered this he asked that he might delay the attack till sunrise of
the 8th, and extend the operation so as to include the capture of
Chapultepec. To the first request Scott assented ; the other he de
clined. His purpose was to enter the city by the south, and he
therefore considered the castle of no importance, as it only com
manded the western approach.
Scott supposed the fight for the Molino would be but a skirmish ;
Worth knew it would be a desperate struggle. His plan was, to
pierce the Mexican centre, while making strong movements against
the flanks. Garland's brigade and two field-pieces were to advance
and cut off support from Chapultepec. On the left of these, two
Winfield Scott.
1847.] WAR WITH MEXICO. 381
twenty-four pounders were to be supported by a light battalion.
Five hundred picked men, under Major Wright, were to storm the
battery in the Mexican centre. A brigade under Lieutenant-colonel
MTntosh, with a battery, was to attack the Casa Mata. And the
cavalry were to form on the extreme left, under Major Sumner. Cad-
wallader's brigade formed the reserve. All these positions were
taken while it was yet dark, on the morning of the 8th. A little
after three o'clock the twenty-four pounders sent their shot crash
ing through the walls of the Molino, and a few minutes later the
storming-party advanced toward the point where the battery had
been observed the day before. But its place had been changed, and
the first appearance of life in the enemy was when it suddenly opened
on the flank of the five hundred, with round shot and grape. A
rush was made for it, and the gunners were driven back, but in the
face of the infantry fire at once concentrated on the captors, it could
not be held. Eleven of the fourteen officers in the storming-party
fell, and almost a like proportion of the rank and file. The re
mainder retreated, while the Mexicans came forward and deliberately
killed every wounded man on the ground, save two.
The light battalion advanced through the shattered ranks of the
storming-party to renew the assault; and as the Mexicans were at the
same time attacked on the flank by Garland's brigade, they fell
back. One company, finding shelter under the edge of a low bank,
acted as sharpshooters to clear the flat roofs. Drum's battery was
run forward to a position where it could rake the Mexican battery at
close range, and, with the aid of a steady infantry fire, soon drove
away the gunners and their support, and the guns were seized. The
fighting on this part of the field then became a struggle for the pos
session of the Molino. General Leon led a spirited but unsuccess
ful sortie, in which he was mortally wounded. While the sharp
shooters were picking off the men who ventured upon the roof, and
Drum's battery was pounding at the walls, parties of infantry sur
rounding the building were filing in at the windows and trying to
pry open or batter down the gates. At last the southern gate gave
way, and the assailants poured in, but only to renew the fight inside
with bayonet and sword. In this desperate conflict Worth lost a
large number of the very flower of his forces. At last the surviving
Mexicans retreated to Chapultepec, — all but seven hundred, who
being on the roof, with no escape, surrendered.
On the left, Duncan's battery and M'Intosh's brigade advanced
against the enemy, but were received with a murderous fire from a
low embankment, from the works, and from the Casa Mata. M'In
tosh fell mortally wounded ; his successor in command was shot dead,
382
PROGRESS OF SOUTHERN RULE.
[CHAI-. XIV.
and the next officer was soon disabled. The men had approached
within thirty yards of the Casa Mata, and had suffered accordingly.
A large portion of the survivors fell back ; a remnant still kept up
the struggle. At this point in the action, Santa Anna sent cavalry
and infantry against the American left ; but they were driven back.
The whole artillery was then brought to bear upon the walls of the
Casa Mata and the surrounding works, which the Mexicans were soon
compelled to abandon. A few old cannon-moulds were found inside
the Molino, but there was no foundry. Except as an outpost to Cha-
pultepec, it had no strategic value, and Scott's orders positively for
bade Worth to take Chapultepec. In fact, after the prisoners were
Chapultepec.
secured, and the American dead and wounded removed, Worth, by
Scott's order, drew back his whole command, and left to the enemy
the field that had been won at so dear a price. About three thousand
five hundred Americans had been actually in the right, and seven hun
dred and eighty-seven had fallen, including fifty-nine officers.
Near the eastern end of an enclosure a mile long and one third of
a mile wide, rises the rock of Chapultepec, a hundred and
fifty feet high, bearing the great castle, once the palace of a
Spanish viceroy, now a military school. The northern side was abso
lutely inaccessible ; the eastern and a portion of the southern, nearly
so ; the southwestern and western could be scaled. The regular ac
cess was by a long zigzag road on the southern side, which was swept
Chapultepec.
1847.] WAR WITH MEXICO. o83
by a battery planted in its angle. The crest of the rock was strongly
fortified, and the castle had been provided with sand-bag parapets.
The grounds around it were broken by walls, aqueducts, and ditches.
The southern line of the enclosure was a long, heavy stone wall, with
a redan at its central point. The northern side was formed by an
aqueduct whose arches had been filled up with masonry. The Mo-
lino del Key was the western side. From the great gate on the east
two divergent causeways led into the city of Mexico. The place was
garrisoned by two thousand men ; thirteen heavy guns were mounted
to be used in its defence, two to sweep the main approach. After
many reconnoissances it was determined, in a council of war, that the
castle must be reduced before the city could be taken.
When a bombardment from three heavy batteries had proved that
the place could not be reduced by artillery fire alone, a select party
advanced at a run and seized the Molino, — Captain Joseph Hooker
having first approached alone, and found that it was unoccupied, —
and at night Pillow threw his whole force into it. Then at dawn of
the 13th, fire was reopened upon the castle, and upon the storuiing of
Mexican lines south of the city. At eight o'clock the iiifan- CUaPult°P«c-
try advanced. A fire from a light battery was directed across the re
dan that covered an opening in the southern wall of the enclosure ;
and when the defenders had sought shelter, a battalion of voltigeurs and
a storming-party rushed upon the redan, went over the works in the
face of a musketry fire, advanced through the grounds of the enclos
ure, and took in reverse the intrenchments that crossed it facing the
O
Molino. At the same time a similar force, rushing from the Molino,
had assaulted these intrenchments in front. The two forces united,
and, using the shelter of the trees, which here formed a large grove,
gradually pressed back the Mexicans.
Reenforced by a storming-party, the combined forces pushed up the
hill. Its western slope was filled with mines, but the Mexican offi
cer, as he was about to explode them, was shot down. The as
sailants gained the crest in spite of the plunging fire from a work
at that point and from the castle. The scaling-ladders not being
at hand, they took shelter in the clefts of the rocks, and employed
the interval in picking off the Mexican artillerymen. At the same
time a regiment passed around the northern front of the rock to
cut off the Mexicans who were letting themselves down the almost
perpendicular eastern face. When at length the ladders arrived the
walls were rapidly scaled, in face of a destructive fire; and Cap
tain Howard, with a considerable force, safely gained the parapet.
Ladders were thrown across the ditch, and the whole force on the
western side joined their comrades. Meanwhile another storming-
PROGRESS OF SOUTHERN RULE. [CHAI-. XIV.
party had climbed up the southern slope, pushed up the main road,
running over the small work at the angle with two guns, entered at
the great gate, and joined the other party. The whole castle was
now occupied by the Americans, and their fire was directed upon the
lower batteries. The enemy was dislodged, and the way was opened
for the advance of Quitman's troops through the grounds, who took
a large number of prisoners as they fled from the castle.
It only remained to pursue the flying enemy into the city, and
rapture of take possession of the capital. But this was still a difficult
task. The approach was by two roads ; one to the Belen
gate, the other to the San Cosme, each along an aqueduct supported
on stone arches. Quitman's infantry fought their way slowly from
arch to arch, toward the Belen, sheltered by the piers ; but the artil
lery, advancing by the open road, was more exposed and suffered
heavy loss. At last the Mexicans were pressed back into the city,
and Quitman's whole command entered the first work. Here he
confronted the citadel, where Santa Anna commanded, and a fire so
terrible swept all approaches, that further advance was impossible.
On the San Cosme road a detachment under Colonel Trousdnle,
fighting the Mexicans while the storming of the castle was going on,
had cleared the first barricade. Worth's column now followed up
this advantage, and pursued the enemy to a second barricade, at an
angle in the aqueduct. This was assaulted by two advanced parties,
— one operating directly in front, under Lieutenant Gore, the other
to the left, under Lieutenant U. S. Grant. It was soon carried, and
the Mexicans retired into the suburb. As soon as Worth's column
could be concentrated, the advance was continued. But it Avas hard
fighting and slow work. When they arrived at the suburb, one bri
gade passed through the arches, to the right of the aqueduct, and
then all began breaking their way through the walls of the houses.
The fortunate discovery of a quantity of engineering tools greatly
facilitated this work. As the Americans gained possession of one
building after another, howitzers were hauled to the roofs, and served
upon the main gate, which at last was carried with a charge, by a
storm ing-party under Captain McKenzie.
It was now nightfall. The Mexicans held a council of war in the
citadel and determined to withdraw their army from the city, liber
ate the convicts in the prisons, arm them, and instigate these and the
inhabitants to a war from the house-tops, as a last desperate measure.
But before morning a deputation from the civil authorities appeared
at Worth's headquarters and proposed a capitulation. Scott, consid
ering that the city was already his, refused to grant any terms. At
dawn, Quitmaii found the citadel abandoned, marched to the grand
1848.]
THE WILMOT PROVISO.
385
plaza, and occupied the palace. An hour or two later, General Scott
took up his headquarters there. Presently gangs made up of the lib
erated convicts, deserters, leperos, and thieves began firing upon the
soldiers from the houses, and casting down the paving-stones which
had been carried up in immense numbers and stacked in convenient
piles upon the flat roofs. It became necessary to sweep the streets
with grape and canister, and to turn the artillery upon some of the
houses, after which they were given up to plunder. By the morning
of the 15th, order was restored, hospitals were established, and the
The Plaza of the City of Mexico.
American commander was in quiet possession of the capital of the
country.
The treaties which ended the war gave to the United States, not
only Texas, the apple of discord, but New Mexico, California, and
Arizona. The old question instantly arose, Should these be slave ter
ritories or free ? David Wilmot, a Democratic Representative from
Pennsylvania, had moved, as early as 1846, that, in all territory ac
quired from Mexico, slavery should be prohibited. So hot was the pres
sure behind Democratic members of Congress at their homes, that,
when Mr. Wilmot introduced this " Proviso " it commanded almost
every Northern Democratic vote. As the war went on, the The Wilmot
division of the Democratic party became evidently incura- Proviso-
ble. At the Democratic Convention to name a President in May,
1848, one branch of the double Democratic delegation from New
VOL. iv. 25
386 PROGRESS OF SOUTHERN RULE. [CiiAi-. XIV.
York insisted on the a Wilmot Proviso/' The Convention proposed
to them that they should divide the vote of New York with the rival
delegation. This they refused to do, and retired. The field was left
to Democrats who opposed the Proviso, and General Cass was nomi
nated.
The Whigs, at their convention, passed by Mr. Clay and Mr. Web-
The election ster, so long the leaders of their party, and nominated Gen
eral Taylor of Louisiana, the hero of the war just ended.
Mr. Van Buren, who had yielded to the decision of his party four
years before, and had canvassed New York for his successful rival,
was now named — with Charles Francis Adams as candidate for the
second office — as the candidate of the "Wilmot Proviso" men, who
took the name of the '* Free-Soil Party." Van Buren received more
than half of the Democratic votes of New York ; Cass came third ;
General Taylor received the plurality vote of the State, and was
elected by the country. New York again justified her name as the
u Empire State." The electoral votes were 163 for General Taylor,
127 for General Cass. Of the popular vote General Taylor had
1,360,101; General Cass 1,220,544; and Mr. Van Buren "291,263.
So important a factor had the "• Free Democracy " already become.
In the short session which followed General Taylor's election, bo-
fore he assumed office, Calhoun organized a series of meetings of
caihoun's slaveholding members of Congress, which were attended by
manifesto, seventy or eighty members. Calhoun, as chairman of a sub
committee, reported an address, which was signed by forty-eight Sen
ators and Representatives. It denied the power of Congress to ex
clude slavery from California and the other new Territories. Nor did
it stop here, for it denied the power of the legislatures or inhabitants
of the Territories to exclude it. The South was to hold no connection
with any party at the North not prepared to enforce the Constitu
tional guarantees in favor of the South. Among the failures of the
North to do this, was n;inied tin- neglect to enforce the old Fugitive-
Slave Law.
CHAPTER XV.
THE COMPROMISES OF 1850.
ELECTION OF TAYLOR TO THE PRESIDENCY. — CALIFORNIA. — DISCOVERY OF GOLD. —
THE COMPROMISES OF 1850. — THE NE\V FUGITIVE SLAVE LAW. — ADMINISTRA
TION OF FlLLMORE. ELECTION OF PlERCE. — DOUGLAS'S KANSAS - NEBRASKA
BILL. — REPEAL OF THE MISSOURI COMPROMISE. — SETTLEMENT OF KANSAS. —
MASSACHUSETTS EMIGRANT AID SOCIETY. — REEDER APPOINTED GOVERNOR. — IN
VASION OF KANSAS BY "BORDER RUFFIANS."
IN February, 1848, the treaty of peace with Mexico — the Treaty
of Guadalupe Hidalgo — was concluded. Almost at the
same hour the discovery of gold was made in California. On go'ia in caii-
the ranch of Colonel Sutter, a Swiss emigrant, who had
lived for many years in the valley of the Sacramento, some laborers
were opening a trench, for conducting water to a mill. They turned
up earth, which may be precisely described in the words of Shel-
vocke, used one hundred and thirty-one years before, " black earth
spangled with gold." If any effort was made to keep the discovery
secret, that effort was futile. It was soon known that the alluvial
deposits of that great river — and as it afterwards proved, of other
waters flowing from the Sierra Nevada — were largely charged with
gold. The only wonder was, that it had not been discovered before.
In 1844, the crew of the United States ship Peacock, with the geol-
388
THE COMPROMISES OF 1850.
[CHAP. XV.
ogist of the exploring expedition to which she had belonged, passed
down this very valley to San Francisco, encamping every night upon
the placers, or gold-dust beds, now known to be invaluable. Similar
experiences are related by officers and soldiers who served in the
war. But none of these pioneers had discovered gold. The sugges
tion has been made that Jesuits and Franciscans both had made the
great discovery, but had
withheld it from civiliza
tion, in dread of the mis
eries it would inflict upon
the province and upon man
kind. But those fraterni-
ties have shown no other instances of such timidity. The truth is,
that the discovery by Sutter's workmen was a surprise to all mankind.
A tide of emigration immediately set in upon California, from
all parts of the world. Its population, including the In
to caiifor- dians who had taken up fields, was estimated at 15,000 when
the century began. It was not much larger in 1846, at the
beginning of the Mexican war. But before the census of Septem
ber, 1850, it numbered 92,597. By far the larger part of this increase
was due to the emigration consequent upon the discovery of gold,
and it came chiefly from the northwestern and northeastern States.
From the West, adventurers in great numbers went with their
cattle and horses, by routes till then scarcely known, through the
passes of the Rocky Mountains and the Sierras. From the East, men
went round Cape Horn, or by the route till then little used for two
centuries, across the Isthmus of Panama.
So large a population as this, of people mostly bred in the United
States, was naturally not satisfied without a government of its own.
1849.] CALIFORNIA. 389
The new administration of President Taylor eagerly seconded its
wishes. The President despatched an agent to California, imme
diately after his inauguration, urging the people to apply for admis
sion as a State. He felt that such an application would so far relieve
Congress from the exciting slave question as to its position while
a Territory. General Riley, the military commander, issued a proc
lamation on the 3d of June, 1849, calling a convention to make a
State constitution. This Convention met, prepared a constitution
for the new State, and sent it to Washington for approval. All
this was done without an "• Enabling Act," or provision by AdmiS8ion
Congress for such a convention. The constitution was asaState-
so far made under the influence of the Northern settlers that slavery
in the new State was forever prohibited.
By this overture to California the policy of General Taylor may
be well enough discerned. He, and a group of men around
him, were hoping against hope, perhaps, that the slavery Taylors
questions might be ki tided over," that they might adjust
themselves one by one, without Congressional action. If California
could arrange her own matters, if New Mexico could be left to the
old Mexican law, and all territory north of the line of 36° 30' left to
the Missouri Compromise of 1820, there would be no vacant terri
tory open for the application of the u Wilmot Proviso," which at this
time Avas the embarrassing question to both parties in Congress. For
the other territories, Arizona and New Mexico, acquired from Mexico,
the President recommended that they should be left under Mexican
law. This disposition of the question irritated the Southern members
of Congress of both parties. But it was readily accepted by such
men as Mr. Seward, the Senator from New York, and by the other
Northern statesmen who opposed the extension of slavery.
When the new Congress met in December, 1849, the composition
of the House of Representatives showed at once that the Parties in
sway of the old parties must be modified. Although Gen- Consress-
eral Taylor had a decided majority in the Electoral College,1 he was
in a minority of the popular vote, having received but 1,360,101
votes out of a total of 2,871,908. The Free-Soil party had given
291,263 votes for Mr. Van Buren. The strength of this third party
showed itself in the House, and at the same time there appeared an
unwillingness in Southern members to ally themselves with the Whig
party in any measures which seemed to run counter to the interest
of slavery. All the elements of discord showed themselves in the
election of Speaker. Robert C. Winthrop, of Massachusetts, the Whig
Speaker in the last Congress, was again the candidate of his party.
1 163 Electoral votes, to 127 giveii for General Cass.
390
THE COMPROMISES OF 18.10.
[CiiAi-. XV.
But the Free-Soil members were, not satisfied with his record, while
at the same time five Southern Whigs refused to vote for him. In
thirty-eight ballots, therefore, he failed to receive the support of
either of the extremes of those nominally connected with the Whig
party, and he withdrew his name after the thirty-ninth ballot. Mr.
Brown, a Democratic member from Indiana, had received in that
ballot a larger number of votes than any other candidate. Some of
the Free-Soil members, having received from him an assurance that
he Avould constitute
the committees on
the District of Co
lumbia, the Judici
ary, and the Ter
ritories so as to be
satisfactory to them,
voted for him on the
fortieth ballot. He
failed of an election
by two votes only.
So close an approach
to an alliance be
tween the Demo
crats and the Free-
S o i 1 members
alarmed the South
ern portion of both
parties. They unit
ed so far as to carry
a vote that a plural
ity should elect. ( >n
the next trial, I low-
ell Cobb, of Georgia, received one hundred and two votes. Mr. Wiu-
throp received one hundred only.
Standing committees which Avould protect to the utmost the extreme
Southern interest were thus secured. This issue of a long and heated
controversy was even less important than the discussion which accom
panied it. Southern members of both parties not merely
Slavery in *
theTerrito- made threats of dissolution, but declared that the Union
ries.
would virtually be dissolved if slavery' were suppressed in
the Territories. The steadiness with which this threat was uttered,
and the desire of the friends of the Union, as men between the ex
tremes began to call themselves, to avert such an issue, can alone
account for the abatement of the zeal of a laro;e number of North-
Zachary Taylor
1850.] CLAY'S RESOLUTIONS. 391
ern members. On the fourth of February, 1850, Mr. Root's resolu
tion, prohibiting slavery in the new Territories, was laid on the table
by a majority of twenty-six. Only five weeks before, a motion to the
same effect had been rejected. Forty votes had been changed in the
mean while. So far as men justified this change, it was on the ground
that the question was really settled without the prohibitory proviso,
and that the preservation of the Union was the overruling neces
sity. But, whatever the form of the justification, the truth was that
the solid front offered by Southern statesmen of all parties alarmed
the more timid of the Northern Representatives.
In the midst of the excitement which showed itself every day, Mr.
Clay, who had returned to the Senate, offered himself once more as
the conciliator of extreme views, as he had done in 1820 and in 1833.
He was now to make his last appearance in public life in an attempt
to assuage a greater storm than he had dealt with on those two pre
vious occasions. As if by way of preparation for this new effort,
he had, in his own State, recently offered a proposal for the extinction
of slavery. Kentucky was making a new Constitution, and Mr. Clav
tested his own power with the community which was so proud of
him, by public expressions that condemned, in principle, the system
of slavery. In a letter written in February, 1849, he de-
" ' i i • " i Emancipa-
nounced the doctrine that " slavery was a blessing, and tion Pr°-
, . posed in
he proposed a gradual emancipation, with the condition that Kentucky
all slaves born after 18")") or 18(30 should be made free
when they were twenty-five years old, and be colonized in Africa.
The scheme was absurdly impossible. The only result of it was a
more decisive victory of the friends of slavery in the Kentucky con
vention than they dared expect. But the occasion had shown that
Mr. Clay did not choose to be counted among those extreme adher
ents of the system of slavery, who, by a certain felicity of colloquial
expression, now began to be called '• Fire-eaters." He
availed himself of his position on the 29th of January, 1850, misesof
by introducing eight resolutions which he offered as a com
promise on all pending issues. These resolutions were meant to cover
all the open questions. They admitted California without restric
tion. They established territorial governments without conditions
regarding slavery. They carried the boundary of Texas to the Rio
Grande, providing for her debt " to a limited extent," on condition
that she relinquished her claim to New Mexico. They declared it
inexpedient to abolish slavery in the District of Columbia, but they
prohibited the introduction of slaves into the District for merchan
dise or transportation. They made more effectual provision for the
recovery of fugitive slaves, and they declared that Congress had no
392 THE COMPROMISES OF 1850. [CiiAr. XV.
power to obstruct the trade in slaves between the States. On these
resolutions, and on other measures already before the Senate, a de
bate sprang up, which really lasted, with little break, until Con
gress adjourned in September.
General Taylor and his Cabinet were hoping, from the beginning.
to hold to a course between extremes, and the President did not look
with particular favor on Mr. Clay's efforts at conciliation. Perhaps he
thought it would have been better for the country had they not been
made. The majority of the Whig representatives of free States in the
Webster s Senate and the House, were willing to go with the Presi-
positiou. Jent as far as he went, but no farther. When, therefore,
Mr. Clay went beyond him in the compromise plan, and when Mr.
Webster joined him, as he did in a speech which became celebrated,
on the 7th of March, Mr. Seward of New York, who had steadily
represented the Northern sentiment, became really the leader of the
friends of the Administration in the Senate. General Taylor did not
take kindly the unwillingness of the leaders of his own party in the
Senate to support his plan ; but it was not the first time, nor the last,
when a President has found that the leaders of his party, in Senate or
in House, cared little for his policy or his suggestions.
Mr. Webster's course, in supporting the resolutions of Mr. Clay, ex
cited great indignation among his constituents, great sm-prise among
many of his friends, and was, indeed, a crisis in his life.1 When, in
Mr. Tyler's time, he became acquainted with the details of the plan
for annexing Texas, he tried, in private, to arouse his friends in the
Whig party to the danger which the North would incur in such an
enlargement of the country. Undoubtedly he was disappointed, not
to say angered, by the reception which was then given to his efforts
by men of character and influence at the North. It would seem as if
he persuaded himself that the favorable opportunity had then been
lost ; and he determined that he would not attempt again to sac
rifice himself to create a national feeling in communities which had
once failed to respond to his wish. If they would not follow when he
led, he would not lead at all. When in the spring of 1850 he had
to determine whether he would sustain Mr. Clay's system of com
promise, or take the side which Mr. Seward took, in resolute sup
port of all measures which would arrest the extension of slavery, this
old dissatisfaction probably acted on his mind.2 From the memoirs of
gentlemen prominent in maintaining the Northern policy, it appears
that they were confident of Mr. Webster's support. And when in
1 Mr. Adams, however, wrote in his Diary as early as 1843 : " Daniel Webster is a
heartless traitor to the cause of humaii freedom."
• See, for details, Wilson's Slave Power in America, vol. ii., 241.
1850.]
WEBSTER'S POSITION.
393
a speech carefully considered, and pronounced with all the dignity
which belonged to a great crisis, he abandoned them and theirs, when
afterward lie told Massachusetts even that she must " conquer her
prejudices," they were personally indignant, — as if a tried compan
ion had deserted them, — while they lamented the loss T
»> llHUJillUllOll
which the true policy of the country had sustained. They a-"illst him-
thought, and the country thought, that Mr. Webster was consumed
by the ambitious hope of
becoming President. If the
motives of public men may
ever be judged of, this be
lief in regard to Mi1. Web
ster was true. It did not
need even his great sagac
ity to see that thus far in
the history of the country,
the Southern road was the
road to power. His green
est laurels had been won as
the defender of the Consti
tution. Every representa
tive of Southern opinion,
from Calhoun down to the
meanest of the disciples at
his feet, was proclaiming
disunion, and if the Union
was to be preserved, it must
be, Mr. Webster thought, on their own terms. Perhaps he would
have preferred that it should be saved for the sake of freedom ; but he
had no convictions upon the question of slavery that could prevent his
accepting the other alternative, especially if it might give him the
Presidency, as well as save the Union. Anti-slavery principles now
seemed to him only sentimental and morbid prejudices. He would
not or could not see that the question was not simply one of the own
ership of black men, but of the supremacy of an ill-born, ill-bred, un
educated, and brutal handful of slaveholders over a people of a higher
strain of blood, with centuries of gentle breeding, and a high degree
of moral and intellectual cultivation behind them. He undervalued
the power in the long run of those " prejudices " which he bade the
Massachusetts people conquer, — prejudices created, he said, "by the
din and roll and rub-a-dub of Abolition presses and Abolition lectur
ers, beaten every month, every day, and every hour " as an appeal to
the feelings of the North.
Daniel Webster.
394 THE COMPROMISES OF 1850. [Cu.\p. XV.
Mr. Calhoun, the third of the trio of statesmen of another genera
tion, was also in the Senate. But he was dying. A speech written
by him on the issues before the country, was read by Mr. Mason of
Virginia. This Senator had prepared the bill for the more effectual
surrender of fugitive slaves, which, as the result proved, was the
most odious measure to the people of the North ever passed by Con
gress. Mr. Calhoun died on the 31st of March, 1850.
So much power had the various agencies brought to bear in these
great debates, that the Wilmot Proviso, which had a ma-
Adoption of ... .
compromise loritv in the House when the session began, was defeated, as
measures.
has been said, on the 4th of February, by a vote which
showed a change in forty members. Mr. Clay's eight resolutions
did not pass Congress in the form in which they were drawn. But
bills based upon their principles, worked their slow way through a
session which lasted through the heat of summer into September.
As that hot summer of excitement passed, the body of Northern
statesmen lost such strength as they had gained from the midway
Death of policy of General Taylor and his Cabinet. The President
died suddenly on the 9th of July, and the Vice-president,
Millard Fillmore, succeeded him. General Taylor had the advantage,
in any measures of conciliation, of being a Southern man and a slave
holder. He was determined to support the Union, and had said that
if any State left it, he would lead the army which should reduce it
to submission, and that for this army he would not ask for one North
ern man. He and his Cabinet would probably have been as well
pleased if Mr. Clay had not lent his influence to measures so odious
as the Fugitive Slave Bill of Mr. Mason. By the President's death,
which placed a Northern Whig in his chair, any sympathy which the
South had with a Southern President was withdrawn from the parti
sans of a midway policy. Mr. Fillmore took Mr. Webster into his
Cabinet as Secretary of State. This was a public notification that
the new Administration would support the measures of compromise.
They passed Congress, one by one, after debates which went to the
very foundations of society and of morals, and excited the whole na
tion to the quick, and Mr. Fillmore signed them all.
Among these measures was a bill which established the boundaries
Texas and °f Texas, and secured to her, for the relinquishment of her
xewMexico. ckims on New Mexico? ten mjnion dollars. While all the
other States had ceded their public lands to the Union, Texas alone
had been permitted to retain hers, an appanage of wealth untold. In
addition to this gift, ten million more were now offered to her. This
bill passed the Senate by a majority of ten. It was driven through
the House by a strong combination, which made it necessary to set
1850.] THE FUGITIVE SLAVE LAW. 395
aside even a decision of the Speaker, and finally passed by a majority
of eleven. Before this bill was introduced, the public debt of Texas
was worth only seventeen cents on a dollar. So soon as the bill
passed it rose to par, which it has almost always maintained since
that time. The country believed, of course, that
the holders of Texan securities bought the passage
of the bill. J>ut the President, himself a states
man of personal honesty, signed this with all the
others. Tlie other bills admitted California with
its Constitution ; provided that when Utah should
be admitted it should be with or without slavery,
as its constitution might prescribe ; and provided
the most rigid measures for the surrender of fugitive slaves.
Of these " adjustments " the Fugitive Slave Law was that which
most challenged the public indignation of the North, and,
from the inquisitorial character inseparable from such an tivcsiave
act, provoked the most determined opposition whenever its
provisions were put in practice. With the great increase of travel to
and fro, which had in a thousand forms changed the whole character
of the nation, the frequency and ease of escapes from slavery Avere
largely increased beyond anything possible in earlier times. The
events of tAventy years, and the persistent labors of the Abolitionists,
had shoAvn noAvhere else more significant results than in the universal
sympathy felt for a fugitive slave. Those known as Garrisonians
openly declared that they Avould not, for conscience' sake, obey the
Constitution and the laAvs on this subject. The exercise of political
rights implied an oath to the Constitution, and they
Avould not SAvear obedience to a government Avhose
laws they defied. They Avere, therefore, iion-A-oters,
and they declared they had no union Avith slave
holders, for right Avas higher than law. Others, less
scrupulous than they as to the sanctity of an oath,
or else persuading themselves that the citizen could
put his own construction upon his oath by a mental
reservation, — others still Avho were influenced by mere humane feel
ing, were equally disobedient. An escaping slave found friends the
moment he crossed the border ; he Avas passed openly or secretly,
as the exigency of the case required, from friend to friend, finding
everywhere aid, shelter, and advice, and Avas forwarded on his Avay to
Canada, or the more retired parts of the North.1 Whole villages of
1 It was estimated tli.it more than 30,000 fugitive- slaves found homes in Canada during
the thirty years of the anti-slavery agitation ; and that at the time of the passage of the act
of 1850 there were not less than 20,000 in the free States. Advertisements for "runawavs "
were always illustrated as above in Southern newspapers.
396 THE COMPROMISES OF 1850. [CiiAi-. XV.
refugee-slaves grew up in Canada, settled by the exodus from the
Southern States. To reclaim such slaves from the more distant
Northern and Northwestern States, had proved difficult. From the
States on the border, they were often brought back by brute force.
The men who pursued them relied, in earlier years, largely on the
indifference of the inhabitants, who, very frequently, shared in the
Southern contempt for those counted of an inferior race. But as
the facilities for escaping from slavery increased, and as those who
were left behind learned from those who had preceded them that
they were comparatively safe when once they had reached a free
State, and absolutely safe when they had crossed the Canadian line,
so it became more and more difficult, as time went on, and the feel
ing against slavery at the North increased, to enforce the statute of
1793. A new act, therefore, was demanded, and one was drawn by
Mr. Mason, a Senator from Virginia.
The difficulties which surrounded it Avere pointed out from its birth,
Proposed m the debates in both Houses. Mr. Webster had prepared
to"Fugitivnets a provision giving the fugitive a jury trial. This amend-
siaveAct. ment ^.^s introduced by Mr. Dayton, but failed. When
men afterward held that the act was unconstitutional, this failure
to grant jury trial was one of the features they relied upon. .An
amendment, offered by Jefferson Davis, provided that the Government
of the United States should be responsible for the expenses of the
slave's delivery. This was adopted. Mr. Davis, a Massachusetts
Senator, offered an amendment providing that when free colored sea
men were imprisoned in Southern ports, the United States District
Attorney should sue out writs of habeas corpus for their delivery.
But this failed. For thirty years South Carolina had imprisoned
all colored sailors entering her ports, and they would be reduced to
slavery, if by any accident they were not taken away again in the
vessel in which they came. England had complained more than once
of this outrage upon British subjects ; the law had been pronounced
unconstitutional, but South Carolina defiantly maintained it, and other
States had followed her example. In 1844 Massachusetts had sent
Mr. Samuel Hoar to South Carolina, and Mr. Henry Hubbard to Loui
siana, to seek redress for this grievance ; but both gentlemen had
been compelled, by threats of being lynched by mobs, to make their
escape from Charleston and New Orleans. Had Mr. Davis's amend
ment passed, it would only have subjected the North to new indignities.
By the new law the alleged fugitive was denied a trial by jury, was
denied the right of testifying to the court that he was not the slave of
the claimant, or that he was not a slave at all ; but any court of rec
ord or judge therein was required to surrender him to the claimant
on his word. As courts might not be always accessible, the act pro-
1850.]
THE FUGITIVE SLAVE LAW.
397
vided for special commissioners, whose decision should be absolute in
all cases, and whose fee, when they decided in favor of the claimant,
should be double that when the decision was against him. The posse
comitatus might be called upon, if the officers making the arrest
thought necessary; all good citizens were " commanded'- to aid the
execution of the law, and if they helped the prisoner, they were
subject to heavy penalties. When the bill came before Congress
there were some Northern members who declined to vote ; but it was
passed by a large majority, signed by the President, and pronounced
constitutional by the Attorney-general.
The last of the five measures, which was meant to meet North
ern susceptibilities as to the
slave trade in the District of
Columbia, authorized the city
authorities of Washington and
Georgetown to abate the traffic
in slaves brought into the Dis
trict for sale. It did not in
terfere with the sale between
residents in the District, nor
prevent their selling slaves to
be taken from it. Mr. Sew-
ard moved to amend by abol
ishing slavery in the District,
and appropriating two hundred
thousand dollars for compen
sation. But this amendment,
of course, failed. Mi,,ard Fi|imore.
As if to test the submissive-
ness of the North, the Fugitive Slave Act was put into immediate
operation. The alarm of the colored population was intense, among
those who were free as well as those who had escaped from slavery.
And as it happened, the first arrest was that of a freeman, for
whose surrender to the slave-hunter the Commissioner earned his
double fee, though the slaveholder to whom the alleged slave was
taken, was frank enough to acknowledge that he had never seen
the man before. But the indignation of the North did not wait
upon the execution of the law. It broke out all over the country,
and found expression in public meetings, in the pulpit, in the press,
in the solemn resolution of many thousands that they would never
help in the return of a fugitive from slavery, and that they would
hinder if they could. On the other hand, that large class of con
servative people who, like Mr. Webster, valued the Union more
398 THE COMPROMISES OF 1850. [CIIAI-. XV.
than liberty — ;it least more than the liberty of those who were poor
and helpless — were not silent. Great public meetings were held
in New York, in Boston, and in other cities, in which men distin
guished in society, lawyers, merchants, clergymen, insisted, with all
the weight of influence that wealth, position, and ability could give,
that the compromise measures must be sustained, and, chief of all,
that requiring the capture of all runaway negroes, or those said to
be runaways, in the free States. If the duty had been made obnox
ious, so much the more merit in its performance ; for it was th<j
price of the Union, and would leave commerce and trade undis
turbed. To those who asked what such a Union was worth, and
what was to become in the end of government by the people, if the
laws of the country were to be dictated by slaveholders for their ex
clusive benefit, some of the more eminent of the clergy, like Dr.
Moses Stuart, a professor in the Theological School at Andover, Mas
sachusetts, Dr. Lord, the President of Dartmouth College, Bishop
Hopkins, of Burlington, Vermont, Dr. Nehemiah Adams, a leading
evangelical clergyman of Boston, Dr. Taylor, of the Theological De
partment of Yale College, and Dr. Orville Dewey, a Unitarian clergy
man of New York, came forward to enforce the moral and religious
obligation of saving the Union by implicit submission. Those who
wished to be justified, justified themselves by such teachings ; those
who thought with Seward that there was " a higher law than the
Constitution," and those who, like the Abolitionists, declared that a
rightful property in man was impossible, were shocked at a fanati
cism as short-sighted as it was unchristian.
One writer upon the events of this period has estimated that more
fugitive slaves were reclaimed under this Act in a single year than
had been returned for the previous sixty years of the Government.1
There are no statistics to warrant any such assumption, and it could
only be made through an erroneous estimate of the temper of the
times. In the earlier years, the Constitution, — as it was said, in the
decision in the Prigg case, it might — literally ''executed itself."
One searching for and finding a runaway slave, took him, whether
in a slave State or a free State, with as little question, generally, and
as little formality, as if he were a horse which had strayed from its
owner. Philadelphia was the only place in the country, probably,
where any feeling upon the subject asserted itself. And there it was
chiefly confined to Friends, one of whom, Isaac T. Hopper, in the first
quarter of the century, aided and found safe places of refuge for
hundreds of the flying bondmen.2 But it was because the recapture
1 Grceley's American Conflict.
2 See a curious and interesting record of his labors iuthe Lift of Isaac T. Hopper, by
Lydiu Maria Child.
mo.] THE FUGITIVE SLAVE LAW. 399
of fugitives was so easy, and the indifference to the subject was gen
erally so great, that the kidnapping of free negroes became so com
mon along the border that Maryland had more than once called the
attention of Congress to the subject in the earlier part of the century,
and finally had induced Pennsylvania to pass that law under which
IJrigg was convicted. As the Anti-slavery movement grew in strength
in the North, the facilities for escape and the difficulties of recapture
increased ; and when, at length, the Act was passed which was to
trample Northern u prejudices " and Northern law alike under foot,
few, if any, slaves, or alleged slaves, w^ere arrested without arousing
immediate resistance. It seemed to the careless observer that this
was a new thing, because hitherto it had passed without observation.
In reality the cases of capture were few, partly because the fugitives
now were less willing to take the risk of remaining in the free States,
and partly because the dangers and difficulties of recapture were
multiplied a thousand-fold.
The law was simply defied, as not being justified either by reason,
by right, or by the Constitution. If the terms of the Union enforced
the obligation to surrender fugitive slaves, it was demanded that at
least the obligation should be shown to be valid in every given case.
The law that refused this was considered a breach of the contract,
and the obligation being disregarded on one side was held to be no
longer binding on the other. Wherever it was possible to appeal to
the laws and courts of the State, the appeal was made. The doctrine
of State Rights, hitherto maintained only for the protection of slavery,
was declared to be at least of equal virtue for the protection of lib
erty. When the State courts failed to protect the alleged fugitive,
he was, if possible, rescued from the hands of the officers of the law
and sent to a place of safety. Not many years before, an Anti-slavery
gathering anywhere brought together a mob, and he who gave utter
ance to a word of condemnation of slavery, did so at risk of life and
limb. Now a rumor of the seizure of one accused of being a slave,
assembled a multitude of the most thoughtful and most worthy in
every Northern community, to resent the. outrage and insult which,
in the person of that outcast, were offered to the North.
The most significant enforcements of the law were made in Boston.
A slave named Shadrach was taken, by a sudden dash of his Fugitjv(,
friends, from the court room of the Supreme Court of the slave cascs-
State, when it was plain that there was no hope of help from the
law. In the next case in that city the grip upon the fugitive was
firmer. The precaution was taken, in the first place, to arrest
Thomas M. Simms on a charge of theft, and then to hold him as a
fugitive from slavery. The contempt felt for the superserviceable
400 THE COMPROMISES OF 1850. [CHAP. XV.
zeal of the United States officers, who wanted the manliness to re
fuse to hold offices to be put to such base uses, was not limited
to those who were ready to resist them a,t every turn.1 That zeal
was never-failing, but at no time was it so active as in that deepest
humiliation of Massachusetts, and supreme triumph of slaveholding
ascendency — the surrender of Anthony Burns. The attempt to
rescue him — in an attack made upon the Court House, in which
one man was killed — failed, but the extreme measure, nevertheless,
of upholding civil authority by force of arms was resorted to. The
militia of Boston were called out, and the Marshal made requisition
for all the United States troops in the vicinity, on the day appointed
for the surrender of the slave. The events of that day are as mem
orable as some that occurred in those same streets nearly
Anthony . , , ,
Bumssur- a hundred years before. At the end or one of the
wharves lay a revenue cutter, sent by President Pierce to
convey this poor fugitive back to Virginia. The streets were cleared
and held by the military ; the banks and other places of business on
the line of march were closed; flags draped in mourning and at half-
mast were hung out in many places; at the appointed hour, Marshal
Devens, with his prisoner surrounded by more than a hundred civil
officers of Boston, marched out of the Court House in a hollow
square formed by United States Marines and a company of United
States Artillery. Massachusetts was not yet organized for revolu
tion, to repel invasion, or to suppress insurrection, but in the silent
multitude, from Boston Court House to Long Wharf, who watched
that spectacle, lay the suppressed fire that blazed into a fierce red
flame, when seven years afterward the Massachusetts Sixth marched
through Baltimore.
Nowhere else was there quite the pomp of enforced submission dis
played under the law that the slaveholders, and the creatures who
lived on the breath of slaveholders, chose should be made in Boston.
For Boston — or rather all Massachusetts — still stood where she had
stood for a century, at the head of the host that was gathering to join
battle again when the time should come, for freemen and a free gov
ernment. But the spirit that animated her broke out in many places.
Elsewhere as there, when the appeal to law failed, force was resorted
to and fugitives were rescued. Arms were put into their hands, and
1 " How much trouble poor Devens makes for himself. I never had any trouble about
these niggers. And I was very careful. Whenever they came to me and said they were
looking for a nigger, I would go myself and hunt for him. I would go over to 'Nigger
Hill' [a district in Boston] at once, and say, 'Boys, have any of you seen such a man '.
If you see him bring him to my office.' Many 's the time I 've gone to look for 'em. Hut
I never found one." Such was the shrewd, amusing, and contemptuous commentary of a
Democratic ex-Marshal, on the slave-hunting x.eal of Marshal Charles Devens.
1854.]
FUGITIVE SLAVE CASES.
401
they were told to use them. Now and then lives were lost on both
sides ; arrests were made and sometimes punishments were inflicted
for resistance to the law. In some States the use of prisons and the
services of State officers in the arrest of fugitives were forbidden by
' , ".I:: ':'.::!, ::'irM,,f
Rendition of Anthony Burns.
State legislation. Even some of the Southern statesmen were wise
enough to see that they had committed an enormous blunder.
But the South was fighting in her own cause. Mr. Fillmore and
Mr. Webster were looked upon as traitors to the cause of
the North, and it was neither forgotten nor forgiven. Other- Administra-
Avise, in the administration of national affairs of less mo
ment, the President won some credit. It was under that adminis
tration that postage was further reduced, that the Agricultural Bureau
VOL. iv. 26
402 THE COMPROMISES OF 1850. [CiiAP. XV.
was established, that the first steps toward a Pacific Railroad were
taken, and the great enlargement of the Capitol was begun. He sent
out Commodore Perry to Japan, on a mission which was the first of
the measures that have opened Japan to the world. Had it not been
for the black cloud of the slavery question which would not be dis
sipated, Mr. Fillmore had a fair chance for the honor which he cer
tainly coveted, of being elected directly to the Presidency. But that
cloud grew blacker and blacker. The men in public life, or eager
in the management of parties, tried to persuade themselves that the
" Compromises " had ended the discussion. They had only brought
it to the beginning of the end.
Before the thirty-first Congress adjourned, forty-three members, of
whom ten were from free States, published a compact in
Presidential 1111 -,
nomina- which they pledged themselves not to support tor Presi
dent, or Vice-president, for Congress or any State Legisla
ture, any man not opposed to the renewal of the agitation of slavery.
Mr. Clay and Mr. Cobb, as leaders of the Whig and Democratic par
ties, headed the subscription. The record of the Democratic party
was sufficiently clear in these matters. The division in the State of
New York, which had given her vote to President Taylor and had
elected him, was now healed. The " Free Democracy " of that State
acted again in sympathy with the party throughout the country.
Each party held its Convention for the nomination of a candidate
Democratic a* Baltimore. That of the Democrats met first, on the 1st
convention. of june? 1852. The prominent candidates were James Bu
chanan of Pennsylvania, Lewis Cass of Michigan, Stephen A. Doug
las of Illinois, and William L. Marcy of New York. On the first bal
lot Mr. Buchanan had the largest number of votes, one hundred and
sixteen. But this was not enough for his nomination. A protracted
series of ballotings followed, which ended with the forty-ninth, when
General Franklin Pierce of New Hampshire received all the votes
but six. Such distinction as he had, he had earned in the command
of the New Hampshire volunteers in the Mexican war; but his name
was wholly unknown to the country when he was nominated. In his
letter of acceptance he said that no word or act of his life was in
conflict with the principles of the resolutions of the Convention. He
was adopted as a candidate, on the principle, by this time familiar
to the statesmen of the South who controlled these conventions, of
choosing u a Northern man with Southern principles." One of the
earliest acts of his administration — the rendition of Burns — showed
that here, at least, they had made no mistake.
The Whig Convention met on the 16th of June. At the opening
of the session of Congress, six months before, it had seemed as if Mr.
1852.] WHIG AND FREE-SOIL CONVENTIONS. 403
Fillmore might be adopted as the candidate of the party, and it was
also certain that the friends of Mr. Webster, his Secretary \Vhigcon-
of State, would support him. The Whig party, as a party veut1011-
of voters, could not be confidently counted on, as the Democratic-
party could, to sustain the Compromise Measures. It was certain that
a- nomination strictly committed to those measures would lose votes in
the canvass in the Northern States. Still the Convention adopted
the measures in a resolution which said, "• We will maintain this sys
tem as essential to the nationality of the Whig party, and the integ
rity of the Union." This resolution was adopted by a vote of two
hundred and twenty-seven to seventy-six. When the ballot for can
didates came, Mr. Fillmore and General Scott had nearly equal num
bers, and Mr. Webster twenty-nine, enough to prevent either of the
others from receiving a majority. Nor did this state of the vote
change materially till the fifty-ninth ballot, when General Scott re
ceived a majority, one hundred and fifty-nine votes. William A.
Graham of North Carolina, a member of Mr. Fillmore's Cabinet, was
made candidate for Vice-president. The hope of the supporters of
General Scott was, that his military reputation would rally strength
for him, which neither of the recognized chiefs of the party could
command.
The1 third Convention, called by those men who were wholly dissat
isfied with the Compromises, and who saw that the slavery Krec.Soil
question was the only question of vital import in the polities Convel)tiou-
of the nation, was held at Pittsburg, on the llth of August. They
had lost the strength which the breach in the Democratic party of
New York gave them four years before. On the other hand, they
had the additional power given them by the indignation through the
North aroused by the enactment of the Fugitive Slave Law. In their
proclamation of principles they declared slavery to be a " sin against
God and a crime against man ;" they denounced the Fugitive Slave
Act as a violation of the Constitution, and of the common law, hos
tile to the spirit of Christianity and in opposition to the sentiments of
the civilized world. They declared the Whig and Democratic parties
both hopelessly corrupt and unworthy of confidence.
The resolutions were drawn by Mr. Giddings, who had been once
virtually expelled from Congress for maintaining these principles
which the Abolitionists had laid down as the foundations of their so
cieties twenty years before. Even these resolutions were criticised in
the Convention as not sufficiently thorough for the exigency, but they
were accepted as its proclamation to the people. The Convention
named for the candidate for President John Parker Hale of New
Hampshire, who had left the Democratic party on the admission of
Texas ; for Vice-president, George W. Julian of Indiana.
404
THE COMPROMISES OF 1850.
[CHAP. XV.
This election is of historical interest, as the first and the last in
which the two great parties presented to the country as candidates
men who were not very highly esteemed even by the persons who
nominated them. On both sides, the leading statesmen of the par
ties were set aside, for the nomination of men who were called
" available '' in the language of party. The result of the election
showed that the ingeniously contrived Compromises, joined with the
adjustment of the dissensions of the New York Democrats, had really
had some effect in
diminishing the vote
given at the North
for the candidates of
kt Free Soil," or the
Free Democracy.
In neither election
had the "third par
ty" expected to
choose a single Pres
idential Elect o r.
But in 1848, they
gave 291,263 votes
for Martin Van Bu-
ren ; and in 1852
they gave only 156,-
14!> votes for John
P. Hale. Their prin
cipal loss was in the
State of New York,
where the Demo-
Franklin Pierce CHltic party Ull'ltcd
in supporting Gen
eral Pierce, and the vote of the Free Democrats was therefore re
duced by nearly one hundred thousand. General Pierce gained, in
the popular vote, nearly four hundred thousand on the vote given
lor General ('ass, four years before. General Scott gained only
twenty-six thousand on the vote given for General Taylor. In the
electoral vote, the defeat of General Scott was overwhelming. He
had only forty-two electoral votes, those of Massachusetts and Ver
mont in the East, with those of Kentucky and Tennessee in the
West. Twenty-seven other States, giving an electoral vote of two
tion of hundred and fifty-four, pronounced in favor of General
Pierce. Never was a more complete victory. The Dem
ocrats who had supported the Compromise Measures were thus tri-
1854.] ELECTION OF PIERCE. 405
umphantly sustained. The Whig leaders who had supported them,
had the mortification of destroying their party, without other advan
tage for the general welfare than such as could be hoped for from
an administration committed to extreme pro-slavery measures.
At the end of Pierce's administration, it was said that he came
into office with very little opposition, and went out without any.
The language abridges into an epigram the history of four fatal
years. It was not, however, the first time that an immense popular
success has proved fatal to a man or to a party. In his first message
he spoke with a certain doubt of his own power, which
His course
only foreshadowed too well a fatal weakness by which, ap- fore-
^ shadowed.
parently with no will of his own, he became the tool of
different managers, and in consequence of which his party was re
duced to a minority among the people, and, in a quarter of a cen
tury, it has never recovered the ascendency. In the inevitable
conflict of which his administration makes an important part, it hap
pened that its failure belongs to a part of the history of slavery.
Hut the weakness of the man was such that it is impossible that
even in the happiest time he could have directed large measures
with any success.
In his inaugural address he used the strongest language with re
gard to the Compromise measures and the question of slavery. " I
fervently hope," he said, "that the question is at rest, and that no
sectional or ambitious or fanatical excitement may again threaten the
duration of our institutions or obscure the light of our prosper
ity." At the end of the same year, in his message he spoke of the
repose which had followed the Compromises, and said, "that this re
pose is to suffer no shock during my official term if I have power to
avert it, those who placed me here may be assured." Only six weeks
after, on the 4th of January, Mr. Douglas, of Illinois, one of the un
successful competitors for the nomination in the Democratic
. ... Douglas's
Convention, introduced in the Senate a bill for opening the Nebraska
territory of Nebraska to settlement. Before this time all
territory west of Iowa and Missouri had been closed against emi
grants, that is, it was impossible for them to secure their farms if they
should settle. By the word u Nebraska," in this bill, was meant all
the territory north of the line of Texas and west of the States
named, as far as the Rocky Mountains. On the 16th of January, Mr.
Dixon, of Kentucky, moved that in the territory thus opened the
Missouri Compromise should not apply, and on the 23d, Mr. Douglas
introduced a second bill including that provision These two gentle
men thus reopened the slavery discussion which the President six
weeks before had spoken of as c-losed forever.
THE COMPROMISES OF 18.30. [CiiAi>. XV.
It is difficult for another generation to understand how entirely the
Missouri Compromise, born in excitement and rejected at first by
the most steadfast Northern feeling, had come to be regarded
throughout the Northern States as virtually belonging to an unwrit
ten Constitution. At the East, " Mason and Dixon's line " between
Pennsylvania and Maryland, had been spoken of for a generation as
the line between freedom and slavery. At the West, the parallel of
86° 30', fixed upon in 1820, was regarded as making the same separ
ation. Men even spoke as if a certain eternal line of climate were
represented by this imaginary parallel, so that it parted countries in
which slave labor could be productive from countries in which slave
labor wrould be impossible. Even the school-books which children
read fostered this sentiment without intending it, and among things
settled, which conservative people were determined not to unsettle,
nothing can be named more fixed than this dividing line. To over
leap this boundary now and remove all barriers to the extension of
slavery, was the determination of the South, or presently became so.
When on the 4th of January, Mr. Douglas, from the Committee on
Territories, reported a bill for the organization of Nebraska, the
report questioned the original validity of the Missouri Compromise,
and declared that the new Compromise of 1850 left all question of
Proposed re- slavery to the decision of the people residing in any given
Missouri e territory. This is the doctrine which in the discussions of
t'ompromiisc. ,-, . nl -, . o c, • .,
the next six years was called "Squatter Sovereignty, a
phrase originally given to it by General Cass. As announced by
Mr. Douglas, it may be considered an illustration of his interest in
the new settlers of the West, and his determination to stand l'>y
their rights. But it was impossible to say that any abrogation of the
Compromise of 1820 had been contemplated by the men who united
in the Compromise Measures of 1850. The text of these measures
admitted of no such construction, and a careful examination of the
debates of the session in which they were passed, actually showed that
no allusion to the Missouri Compromise was made, or any proposal to
overthrow it. In all the discussions South or North upon the sub
ject, it had seemed to be taken for granted that the Compromise of
1820 was eternal, or, as has been said, that it was now an unwritten
article of the Constitution. It afterwards appeared, that in the sum
mer following Pierce's election, a warm discussion had sprung up in
the western counties of Missouri among persons who wished to take
up the rich bottom lands of what is now Kansas and cultivate them
as slave territory ; that in that discussion it had been held that the
Missouri Compromise was no longer binding.1 In fact, the Missouri
1 A pamphlet by " Lynaeus " avowed this view, and is now one of the curiosities of Amer
ican history.
185-1.]
KEl'EAL OF THE MISSOURI COMPROMISE.
407
Compromise had been disregarded when the State of Missouri, with
the consent of Congress, had added to her territory that triangle
in the northwestern part of it which was known as the Platt Pur
chase. It is probable that the wishes of these Missouri speculators
were reflected in Mr. Douglas's proposal. Mr. Douglas, also, though
lie was a man of large Northern popularity, probably was not ex
empt from that eager desire to secure popularity at the South which
governed so many of the statesmen of the hour. He was in the po
sition of chairman of the Committee on Territories, so that he was
obliged to take ground on the one side or the other. He always
insisted that the clause which he introduced was neither a pro-
slavery clause nor an anti-slavery
clause, — that it simply left the in
stitutions of the Territory to the de
cision of those who were to reside
upon its soil.
Whatever Mr. Douglas meant or
did not mean, whatever the Southern
statesmen who applauded his fatal pro
vision meant or did not mean, the
proposed abrogation of the compro
mise line of 1820 was received through
out the Northern States as a, proposal
to change by Act of Congress an ar
ticle of the Constitution would have
been received. It was plain that the
South, having obtained every advan
tage it could claim under the Missouri
Compromise, in the admission of the States of Florida, Arkansas,
and Missouri as slave-holding States, now chose to throw away that
agreement, when for the first time any advantage was to come to
the North. It was felt throughout the Northern States that the
repeal of the Missouri Compromise was an " uncalled for and un
necessary act, even a violation of plighted faith." These are the
words of Mr. Kenneth Ray nor of North Carolina, in an address made
the next year.
The original bill proposed the creation of a Territory to be known
as Nebraska. An early amendment separated the region by the line
which still parts Kansas from Nebraska. But the name first chosen
still attached to the bill, and the debate was generally called the
" Nebraska debate." After a week or two of silent surprise, the
whole North showed its indignation at the destruction of the Missouri
Compromise. This indignation, if nothing else, united the Southern
Stephen A. Douglas.
408 . THE COMPROMISES OF 1850. [CiiAi-. XV.
Senators and Representatives in its favor, and the Kansas-Nebraska
Bill passed into a law on the 30th of May, after the most
Kansas- .-.,. . • i i TI TI • i
Nebraska excited discussion in both Houses. In that vote, as it lias
proved, was the last step of that Southern domination
which had controlled the country since the election of Jefferson.
Many Northern Whigs and Democrats, who had felt bound in
honor to support the Compromises, now felt themselves released
from that obligation. From this moment there was no longer
any reason which could be urged on men of honor for their sup
port. If the South would not hold to these measures except when
it suited her, why should the North be bound by them ? But it
happened, the proposal for " Squatter Sovereignty " started a larger
emigration than that of a few partisans from the western counties
of Missouri. All the Northwest was eager to furnish "Squatters."
The discussion had roused the country, and especially that part of it
which furnishes emigrants for new States. Slaveholders with slaves
do not care to take them into doubtful regions. Men without slaves
can move far more quickly. In the northwestern States, men who
had thus far opposed the Southern policy by their votes alone, siw
that now they had the opportunity to oppose it more directly.
In the Eastern States, Eli Thayer conceived an organization of the
emigration of the year, with the view of directing it to Kan-
emigration sas. On the 20th of April, before the Nebraska Act passed
Congress, he and his friends were incorporated as the " Mas
sachusetts Emigrant Aid Company." They were permitted to hold
a capital of five million dollars. A ready exaggeration, made in a
hostile interest, announced that they had this capital. In fact, that
company had not collected twenty thousand dollars, when the year
closed. But the fame of its wealth answered the purpose as well as
the possession. Undecided men were willing to throw in their
chances, where an organization, supposed to be so strong, led the
way. The glove thrown down too hastily, in a challenge to the
Northern emigrant, was taken up on the instant. On the last days
of July, as soon as the Territory was open to settlement, the pioneer
party of the Emigrant Aid Company took up claims at the point now
known as Lawrence. Before winter, this company had sent from New
England five hundred emigrants. From other free States had poured
in enough more to make a population of eight thousand. These
pioneers had experienced some difficulty in passing through Missouri.
The men on the borders of that State — the "-border ruffians " as
they soon and most appropriately came to be called — had under
taken the task, which soon proved hopeless, of damming the tide.
A winter unexpectedly open favored the settlement. On the other
18.34.]
SETTLEMENT OF KANSAS.
hand, no man bad dared take into the Territory property so valuable
as slaves then were, with the slave's propensity to leave his home.
The great contest, the moment it was reduced to rivalry in settling
a new region, was evidently an unequal one.
Side by side witb the passage of the Kansas-Nebraska Act in Con
gress, treaties had been quietly made in Washington with Settlement
the half-civilized Indian tribes, already in possession, under ofLawre"c«-
which they gave up their lands for settlement. But the Indian titles
were not extinguished when the first New
England colony arrived, and it therefore
planted itself at Lawrence, the first available point as yet free from
Indian claims. Meetings of men in the slave interest were held in
Missouri, in which they pledged themselves to remove any and all
emigrants who should go to Kansas under the auspices of the Em
igrant Aid Societies. President Pierce appointed A. H. Appoillt.
Reeder, of Pennsylvania, Governor of the Territory, and he ReederL
arrived in ( )ctober. From all regions of the Northwest (!overno1'-
settlers poured in, and met with occasional outrages on the Missouri
line, sometimes involving loss of life.
CHAPTER XVI.
THE KANSAS STRUGGLE. — BUCHANAN.
THE FRAUDULENT ELECTIONS IN KANSAS. — THE TERRITORIAL LEGISLATURES. —
THE KANSAS CODE. — BORDER RUFFIANS AIDED FROM SOUTH CAROLINA. — SACK
OF LAWRENCE. — JOHN BROWN OF OSSAWATOMIE. — DISPERSION OF THE TOPI-; u A
LEGISLATURE. — ELECTION OF BUCHANAN. — LECOMPTON CONSTITUTION AND THE
ENGLISH COMPROMISE. — THE MORMONS. — WALKER'S EXPEDITION. — ATLANTIC
TELEGRAPH CABLE. — JOHN BROWN'S INVASION OF VIRGINIA. — His CAPTURE AND
EXECUTION. — ELECTION OF LINCOLN.
ON the 29th of November, an election was ordered in Kansas, to
choose a delegate to Congress. Immediately the border
Election of . J
delegate to counties oi Missouri prepared to send over voters. 1 he Sen
ator in Congress from Missouri, David Atchison, gave this
direction in a public speech : u When you reside within one day of
the Territory, you can send five hundred of your young men who will
vote in favor of your institutions." Such directions were literally
complied with. The election day was a day of invasion, and the can
didate of the slaveholding interest was chosen, by an enormous ma
jority. Indeed, he received eleven hundred votes more than the
number of legal voters in the Territory three months afterward.
The census was taken in February. It showed a population of
5,128 men, and 3,373 women ; of these 3,469 were minors,
tionap- A little less than five hundred, as has been said, was the
pointed. «. i • TI jf* * .c
number of emigrants, greatly denounced in Missouri, irom
New England. Most of the remainder were from the Northwest. Of
the whole number, 2,905 had the qualifications for voting. Governor
Reeder now appointed a second election, at which the Legislature of
the Territory should be chosen. An organized movement was made
in Missouri,1 by which companies of men from that State were sent
into every council district of Kansas. Many of the resident voters, in
the face of this invasion, refused to sanction at the ballot-
Territorlal i •• • , i i i i i r
legislature box the violence that only condescended to use a legal tor-
elected
mality. The result was the fraudulent election of thirteen
councillors, and twenty-six members of the lower house, — a portion
1 See Congressional Report.
1855.] THE SHAWXEE MISSION LEGISLATURE. 411
of them Missourians — by six thousand three hundred and twenty
votes, more than twice the number of legal voters in the Territory,
only about half of whom, or exactly thirteen hundred and ten,
went to the ballot-box. If history repeats, so it often reverses itself.
In this preliminary outbreak of the slaveholders' conspiracy against
civilization and republican government the resort was to a fraudulent
ballot before the seizure of the bayonet; in the next stage, — the
rebellion of 1860, — armed insurrection came first, and that failing,
fraudulent voting is relied upon to subvert the government.
But the Legislature thus chosen, the first result of "• Squatter Sov
ereignty," was recognized at Washington. Its first act was to eject
the single free-soil councillor who was returned, whereupon the only
member of the party in the House resigned. The next step was to
quarrel with the Governor, Reeder, who they soon found was not to
be counted on to support these outrages. They had met at Pawnee,
a hundred miles from Missouri, but adjourned to the Shawnee Mis
sion, which was nearer to their base of operations. Reeder declared
them dissolved by this adjournment ; but they proceeded to Its proceed.
act. A code of laws, of a thousand pages, was passed by 'lugs'
copying the Missouri Statute Book, and changing the word " State "
to "' Territory." They provided that every officer in the Territory for
the next two years should be appointed by themselves, and of course
these officers were selected from their own body. They recognized
slavery in the most stringent legislation, and decreed the punishment
of death for decoying slaves from their masters.
Governor Reeder, indignant at this absurd parody on legislation,
reported his views at Washington. But the President did
not wish any half-way interpretation of his compacts with peraedes ™
the South, and at once removed Reeder, to appoint Wilson
Shannon, a man of a different stamp. Meanwhile the people of the
Territory, in frequent meetings, disclaimed the whole of the legisla
tion of the usurping body, and a convention was called, to be held at
Topeka in September, specially to form a State Constitution, and to
ask admission as a State into the Union. Reeder, whose upright
course had commended him to the Free-State party, was elected as
their delegate to Congress, on a different day, however, from that ap
pointed by the Shawnee Mission Legislature. On that appointed day
the slavery party chose John W. Whit field.
The two conventions of the Free-State party were held at Topeka,
one preliminary, one to make a State Constitution. The second Con
vention prepared a draft of a Constitution, which was accepted by
their constituents. The issue was thus joined between the twro par
ties, — the "• border-ruffians " and the " Abolitionists," as they desig
nated each other on the spot.
412
THE KANSAS STlU'GCiLK.
[CiiAi-. XVI.
Between these parties a protracted civil war followed, provoked
civil war in by outrages upon the actual settlers, leading inevitably, not
merely to defence but to retaliation. Governor Shannon
called out the militia, ostensibly to keep the peace ; but his call
was answered by numerous volunteers from Missouri, for his sym
pathies were well understood. The town of Lawrence was threat
ened in the later months of 1855, but escaped destruction for the
time by the readiness of its leading citizens to go into arrest and
test in the courts the charges of their accusers. With the spring
of 1856, however, a military company from South Carolina under
South Carolina Troops in Missouri.
Major B u ford arrived, pledged to war. They bore a red flag with
the motto, " South Carolina and State Rights.'' This year the at
tack on Lawrence was renewed, under the direct authority of the
Government at Washington. It was the policy of the Free-State men
never to resist this authority, while they never submitted to border
outrage. The Free-State Hotel and the dwelling of Governor Rob-
siu-kiiiK of inson, the Governor under the Topeka Constitution, were
burned and the town was sacked. In the mutual attacks
of these months many lives were lost on both sides, and the animosity
on both sides became, if possible, more and more bitter. The whole
influence and power of the Administration at Washington was thrown
against the Free-State party, and the United States troops at Leaven-
worth were often used by Shannon to carry out his purposes, direct
1857.]
TOPEKA LEGISLATURE DISPERSED.
413
,
or indirect, to assist the invaders from the slave States. The grand
jury called by the Territorial authorities found indictments for high
treason against Robinson and others of the Free-State leaders, and
Robinson was kept for four months under arrest. The Free-State
Legislature met, and were dispersed by the United States forces, to
which, as always, they deferred.
Governor Shannon at length either resigned or was displaced by
President Fierce for failing to bring the Free-State party to
terms, and John W. Geary was appointed in his place. At- pofnteauov-
chison, of Missouri, led another army into the Territory. A
detachment of his force destroyed the village of Ossawatomie, then
the home of John
Brown, who was,
however, absent in
pursuit of a party
of the "border-ruf
fians," who held as
prisoners two of his
sons and kept them
in chains. Another
son of his had been
some time before
inhumanly mur
dered. So soon as
the Free- State
forces approached,
Atchison led back
his men into Missouri. Geary,
on arrival, called on both parties to
disarm, but was met by a new invasion
from Missouri. A murder having taken
place almost in his own presence, he arrested the murderer, and at
once lost favor in the eyes of the slavery party.
He reported at length to the President that "• peace and order ''
were established. With the beginning of 1857 the Topeka
Legislature met; but the United States Marshal immedi-
ately arrested the prominent members, and left both Houses
without a quorum. The Territorial Legislature also met at Lecomp-
ton and provided on their part for a State Constitution. Meanwhile,
on a report from a committee, the National House of Representatives
had declared void all the Territorial enactments ; but the bill did not
pass the Senate. At the same time Governor Geary resigned, dis
gusted with the failure of President Pierce to support him, and
John Brown's Log House
at Topeka
414
THE KANSAS STRUGGLE.
[CHAI-. XVI.
Robert J. Walker, of Mississippi, was named in his stead. Walker,
however, was also deposed, for no reason but the simplest adherence
to good faith with the settlers, and J. W. Denver became Territorial
Governor. The Free-State men refused to vote for the Le-
compton Constitution ; and so completely did it lack popular
support that when again submitted ten thousand votes were
given against it ; and when Congress renewed the experi
ment the same result wras gained. Governor Denver resigned in turn,
Adverse
votes on
Lecompton
Constitu
tion.
Border Ruffians invading Kansas.
and Samuel Medary was appointed in his place. The bitter struggle
— the real opening of the war of the Rebellion which followed — soon
came to an end. The attempt to force a pro-slavery Constitution
was given up. Franklin Pierce, the weak creature who filled the
chair of the President during the most of these outrages, had retired
to his original obscurity. A Constitution which repudiated slavery
in Kansas was made and ratified in 1859, and Charles Robinson was
the first Governor chosen. But it was not until the slave States had
gone out of the Union that Kansas was permitted to come in.
1856.] WEAKNESS OF PRESIDENT PIERCE. 415
Such are the external turning-points only of a history of bloodshed
and terror, then wholly new in the annals of the United States.
Every step in it was marked with intense interest. The vacillations
of President Pierce, as it went on, were pitiable. One day
he announced that he had 110 power to preserve the peace; thePresI-0
another day he employed the army; another day he left the
military commander to take the responsibility of his action. Two
days after the destruction of Lawrence, when that atrocity was not
known in Washington, an agent who had travelled night and day
from that town to explain to him the state of affairs, called upon the
President in Washington. He was distressed by the intelligence, and
\j O
shed tears — possibly maudlin tears — in expression of his sorrow.
He drew a despatch which he sent to Governor Shannon at once, bid
ding him dismiss the "militia" so called, and rely only on the
regular forces. This, he declared, had been his intention from the
beginning; but when the different parties, eager to justify them
selves, produced their several orders, it proved that Governor Shannon
had been directed not to employ the regular army unless he found
the " militia '' insufficient. Such a scene is a fit illustration of the
vacillation of a man unfortunately intrusted with power, who may
not have been absolutely bad, but who was so weak and so destitute
of a political conscience that he was a mere tool in the hands of the
stronger men about him.
As early as the moment when the abrogation of the Missouri Com
promise was proposed, a committee of Free Democrats, led by Mr.
Yinton of New York, had waited on the President to ask him the dis
position of the Administration. The President said in reply that he
had certainly calculated on the support of the "softs,"1 as these men
were familiarly called, for he had shown them at least equal consider
ation in the distribution of patronage. This remark on a question
which involved the most serious moral principles, is characteristic of
the man. In an interview with Mr. Marcy, on the same day, the
committee learned that Mr. Douglas and some Southern gentlemen
had had two long discussions with the President. They had at last
compelled him to assent to their views, and he had himself put in
writing the passage which related to the abrogation of the Missouri
Compromise. This was the fulfilment of his promise, that the coun
try's repose on the slavery question should " suffer no shock during my
official term if I have power to prevent it." The interview between
this committee and the President may be compared to the celebrated
1 The Democratic party of New York was divided into two factions, respectively called
the '• Hard Shells " and the " Soft Shells." The former were in alliance with the slaverv
propagandists* of the South.
410 THE KANSAS STRUGGLE. [CiiAi-. XIV.
interview between the young Democrats of 1811 and Mr. Madison,
when they compelled him to assent to war with England. As always
in such cases, the aggressors were able to threaten their victim with
the loss of a second term of his office. When the President yielded
he falsified every statement he had made up to this period, and, of
course, lost the prize which he had coveted. From this moment the
Democratic party was again divided. All persons, indeed, who were
determined that slavery should never be extended beyond its existing
limits, all persons who wished that the new Territories should be for
ever free, could now act together untrammelled by real or supposed
obligations of honor.
At this period appeared a new combination in the politics of the
country, of which the full history has never vet been written,
The Know- f -, MI i
nothing and, from its very nature, perhaps never will be. A secret
society had been formed in the city of New York in the year
1853, with the purpose of checking foreign influence, especially the
influence of the Pope, purifying the ballot, and maintaining the use
of the Bible in public schools. Whether these were or were not the
only objects of the founders, they have never yet told the world. But
these objects alone were such as could be readily made acceptable to
most of the rank and file of the native voters of either party, ;md
with the fascination which attends well-organized secret movements
would of themselves secure for it a large support. The organiza
tion called itself the American Party, but was popularly named the
" Know-nothings," one of the habits of its members, under their
mutual agreement, being to say to unlicensed inquirers that they
knew nothing of its secret proceedings.
The organization was increasing in numbers when the abrogation
of the Missouri Compromise, in 1854, completely dissolved all old
party ties at the North. Men of all shades of opinion, thus set free
from old companionships, were glad to use the new machinery.
Among these men at the North were some of the more intelligent of
the anti-slavery politicians, who thought that here was the opportu
nity which they had sought in vain before for a national organization
friendly to their plans. At the South a considerable number of men
who distrusted the extreme measures of the k* fire-eaters " joined them,
in hope that this organization might be used for the maintenance of
the Tnion. And as always happens in such cases, a large number of
discontented men of all views or of no views, who thought they had
not been sufficiently considered, offered themselves as leaders in' its
councils.
So rapid was the enrolment of members, that more than a million
and a half of voters had accepted its pledges before the year 1855. In
1835.] THE KNOW-NOTHING PARTY. 417
the elections of the autumn of 1854, they carried the vote of many of
the Northern States, and in all well-nigh paralyzed the efforts of the
old organizations. The indignation of the North at the overthrow
of the Missouri Compromise, and the power of this "American" or
ganization, resulted in the defeat of the Democratic party through
the Northern States. The Whig party was broken in pieces. The
elections of that year indicated to the President and those who had
advised him, that, whatever else was uncertain, it was certain that
they had lost the support of the Northern constituencies.
The new organization of the " Americans " was, however, no bet
ter able than the old parties to hold together those who wished and
those who did not wish to extend slavery. Kenneth Raynor, of North
Carolina, had suggested establishing in it a u third or Union degree,"
by which its members pledged themselves, in what is described as
a very serious and impressive ceremonial, " to maintain the Union
of the States, against anv and all assaults." Before six
months had passed, more than a million and a half men, sustain the
North and South, had taken this pledge. But, after all,
the pledge meant, for the most conscientious, the Union as they un
derstood it ; for those less conscientious, as events have proved, it
seems to have meant nothing.
The frequent alliances between the " American " party and the
Free-Soilers at the North, did not escape attention at the
r< i o • T Alliances
South. So tar as anti-slaverv men were directing the with Free-
,, '-itf'iF-i i i Sellers.
" American councils, the friends of slavery at the South
saw the direction given. The result of such observation showed itself
in Virginia in the spring elections of 1855. Henry A. Wise, one of
the most notorious and insolent of the Virginian leaders, had been
counted, in earlier times, as one of the most influential men among
the Whigs. He now led the Democratic party of Virginia Defeated in
in a triumphant canvass, the result of which entirely over
threw the new organization there. The hopes of its leaders to become
a national party were rudely blighted by this defeat.
Still the "• National Council " which represented the organization,
was the organ of nearly a million and a half of men who had pledged
themselves to support its measures. No President, at this time, had
ever received seventeen hundred thousand votes. If the members
of the subordinate lodges could be kept united, the National Council
could be well-nigh sure of the next President. In that Council almost
every State was represented, generally by seven delegates each. The
Northern and Southern views at once expressed themselves. The
Council proved to be only another Congress, with every element rep
resented in it, which would have been found in the Senate or the
VOL. iv. 27
418 THE KANSAS STRUGGLE. [CHAP. XVI.
House of Representatives in Washington. Two weeks were spent in
the preparation of resolutions ; and the majority proved to
Meeting of * . . . J J J
its council, be in favor of suppressing all discussion of slavery. Of
course the repeal of the Missouri Compromise, then fresh in all mem
ories, was discussed. It was then that Kenneth Ray nor used the
expression which has been already cited. " I have to say," he said,
" that the repeal of the Missouri Compromise was an uncalled for and
unnecessary act, an outrage even, a violation of plighted faith ; and
I would have seen my right arm withered and my tongue palsied
before I would have voted for it." He proposed an amendment,
declaring that the American party recognized the right of private
judgment, of freedom of speech and of the press, on the subject of
slavery ; that all questions touching its agitation should be ignored
and discouraged, but that, should this party "come into power, it
would so dispose of that question as to mete out justice to all sec
tions and interests." But this amendment was rejected. The North
ern resolutions were also rejected. The Southern resolutions were
adopted by a vote of eighty to fifty-nine.
This was the last act of the National Council in which it could
be said to represent the whole country. The Northern delegates
met, and agreed to an address to the order, which demanded the
restoration of the Missouri Compromise line, the admission of Kan
sas and Nebraska as free States, and the protection by the national
Government of actual settlers in the free exercise of the elective fran
chise. The interference with the elections in Kansas by invasion
from Missouri suggested the last demand. For, at this moment, the
impression in the wavering fancies of President Pierce, was that he
had no right to give such protection.
The majority of the order were thus freed from the embarrassments
of anti-slavery alliance, while they lost the support of a large num
ber of their Northern constituents. In the autumnal elections of
1855, the party carried the States of New York, California, and
Massachusetts ; but the division enabled the Democrats to carry New
Jersey, Pennsylvania, Indiana, and Illinois. In all these cases the
victory was that of a plurality, not a majority of voters.
Under such lurid skies, the President met the thirty-fourth Con
gress in December. So complicated were the partisan
N. P. Banks ,. . . i i <• .1 TT
Speaker of divisions, that two months passed betore the Mouse organ-
washi'ng-6 a ized itself by the election of a Speaker. Two years before,
after a similar contest, the extreme Southern candidate was
chosen. This year, — under the plurality rule, as then, — Nathaniel
P. Banks, of Massachusetts, was chosen, receiving one hundred and
three votes, while William Aiken, of South Carolina, received one
1855.]
THE KNOW-NOTHING PARTY.
419
hundred. Nineteen members were absent, eleven scattering votes
were given, and there was one vacancy. Meanwhile the Presi
dent had brought the affairs of Kansas before Congress by a special
message on .the 24th of January. The affairs of that Territory, al
ready the scene of civil war, attracted largely the attention of Con
gress through the session. Even Mr. Douglas, the champion of
" Squatters and Squatter Sovereignty," in a report from the Commit
tee on Territories, denounced
the action of the " New Eng
land Emigrant Aid Company,"
and the President went so far
as to characterize the Eastern
settlers in Kansas, as persons
k' foreign " to its interests. A
committee of the House visited
the Territory in person. They
obtained official records which
verified the history, now cer
tain, of the constant armed in
vasions from Missouri on days
of election.
In the course of the discus
sion in the Senate, Charles
Sumner, Senator from Massa
chusetts, delivered on the 19th
and 20th of May a speech which, when published, he called " The
Crime against Kansas." He was replied to by Senators Cass,
~ " . Sumner's
Douglas, Mason of Virginia, and Butler of South Carolina, speech on
Kansas.
in speeches whose tone is indescribable, except by the slang
phrase which distinguishes a certain grade of language and of man
ners : they " blackguarded " the Senator from Massachusetts in terms
to which ordinary decency set no limit. Unfortunately, in his reply,
he permitted himself to retaliate in something of the same temper.
A reference to Mr. Butler was the ground of an assault made
on Mr. Sumner two days after. The Senate had adjourned. Asgaultcd in
Mr. Sumner remained at his desk writing. Preston S. the Senate-
Brooks, a Representative from South Carolina, accompanied by Mr.
Keitt, another member from the same State, as an accomplice, ap
proached him and said : " I have read your speech twice over care
fully ; it is a libel upon South Carolina, and Mr. Butler, who is a
relative of mine." While he spoke, he struck Mr. Sumner over the
head with a heavy stick, as he sat confined by the desk at which
he was writing, and the blows were continued till he fell stunned,
Charles Sumner
420 THE KANSAS STRUGGLE. [CHAP. XVI.
insensible, and bleeding to the floor. The injuries that he received,
seemed to threaten his life at first; and it was, indeed, not till the
end of four years, that his medical advisers permitted his return to
his active duties. During that period, the State of Massachusetts was
not unfitly represented in the Senate by his empty chair.
Mr. Wilson, his colleague, called on the Senate the next day to
Action in vindicate its dignity. The temper of the Senate and of the
the senate. fmie appears in the fact that the Senate chose a committee
of five Democrats to report on the assault. They reported, that as
Mr. Brooks was a member of the House, the Senate had no jurisdic
tion, and should take no action. In a subsequent debate, Mr. Slidell
said: "When we heard that some one was beating Mr. Sumner, we
heard the remark without any particular emotion. I remained very
quietly in my seat. The other gentleman did the same. We did
not move." Mr. Douglas said: "My first impulse was to come
into the Senate Chamber and help to put an end to the affray, if I
could. Hut it occurred to my mind in an instant, that my relations
to Mr. Sumner were such that if I came into the hall, my motives
might be misconstrued, and I sat down again." Mr. Toombs said,
" I probably said I approved what Mr. Brooks did. That is my
opinion."
Such were the manifestations of opinion among Senators. Senator
senator wn- Wilson, Mr. Sumner's colleague, was challenged by Brooks
lengedby f°r calling the assault "brutal, murderous, and cowardly."
Mr. Wilson declined the challenge on the ground that duel
ling was a part of the barbarism which dictated the attack. When
Mr. Burlingame, of Massachusetts, subsequently accepted a challenge
from Brooks and proposed to meet him in Canada, Brooks declined,
on the ground that the state of Northern feeling was such that he
could not safely travel there. It was generally believed that his real
reason was a fear of Mr. Burlingarue's rifle.
The House, on a report of its committee, voted to expel Brooks, by
Action of a vote °f one hundred and twenty-one to ninety-five. For
the House, expulsion, under the rules, a vote of two thirds was neces
sary, so he retained his seat. A vote of censure was adopted by a
large majority. In an insolent speech he then resigned his seat.
His constituents at once returned him, and in two weeks he took the
oaths again. Southern statesmen of the first rank were eager in con
gratulations. Mr. Mason, of Virginia, said, " I know of no represen
tative whose public career I hold more worthy of the full and cordial
approbation of his constituents." Jefferson Davis said, " I have only
to express my sympathy with the feeling which prompts the sons of
Carolina to welcome the return of a brother who has been the sub-
1856.] PRESIDENTIAL NOMINATIONS. 421
ject of vilification, misrepresentation, and persecution, because lie re
sented a libellous assault upon the representative of their mother."
Mr. Buchanan, however, went so far as to say that Mr. Brooks was
kk inconsiderate." Brooks died within the year. In a eulogy on him
in the, House Mr. Savage, of Tennessee, said, " History records but
one Thermopylae ; there ought to have been another, and that one for
Preston S. Brooks. The scene in the Senate Chamber shall carry the
name of the deceased to all future generations." History would, in
deed, be incomplete without such record of the passions of the time,
though the man who at the moment seems a hero to his friends,
stands revealed in the future to all men as only a ruffian and a bully
of a not uncommon type.
With such excitements, — with the destruction in Kansas even of
the theory of Squatter Sovereignty, — witli the approval by
/ -' J Presidential
the Southern leaders of a murderous assault upon a JNortJi- canvass in
ei-ii Senator, — r all parties made their preparation for another
election of President. The " American " Convention had met in
Philadelphia on the 22d of February, the anniversary of Washing
ton's birthday. Mr. Perkins, of Connecticut, after an exciting debate
on the issues of the day. said, " There are two great questions before
the people : one the reform in the naturalization laws, one the restora
tion of freedom in Kansas." He proposed that, as the Convention
would not consider the latter question, those who thought it a real
issue should withdraw, and fifty members withdrew. The remaining
members gave Mr. Fill more one hundred and seventy-nine votes, and
he was made their candidate. Andrew Jackson Donelson was made
candidate for Vice-president.
On the same day a convention was held at Pittsburg to perfect the
national organization of what was now called the Repub- The Repub
lican Party, in which name it was hoped the different ele- llcanPart>'-
ments of opposition to the extension of slavery might be united.
This meeting proposed a national convention on the 17th of June,
supposed to be an auspicious day in the history of American rebel
lion, because the anniversary of the battle of Bunker Hill.
On the 2d of June there met at Cincinnati the Convention of the
Democratic party. President Pierce, who had come in with Dcmocratio
little opposition, was to go out with none. It was no longer ('onvontio"-
a time for unknown men or weak men. Yet, with the power which
always belongs to an administration, he was brought forward as a
candidate. Mr. Douglas was another. James Buchanan, of Penn
sylvania, was another. Fortunately for him, he had been Minister in
England when the Missouri Compromise was repealed, and in that
matter his hands were clean. The Convention balloted, without any
422 THE KANSAS STRUGGLE. [CHAP. XVI.
nomination, sixteen times, the rules adopted requiring a vote of two
thirds. On the sixteenth ballot Mr. Buchanan received one hundred
and sixty-eight votes, Mr. Douglas one hundred and twenty-one.
There were but six others. On the seventeenth ballot Mr. Buchanan
received a unanimous vote and was chosen candidate. John C. Breck-
inridge was made candidate for Vice-president.
The Convention of the new Republican party met at Philadelphia
Republican on the 17th of June, just after Lawrence was sacked, Mr.
convention. gumner beaten in the Senate Chamber, and Mr. Brooks con
gratulated on the deed of an assassin. Men of very varied antece
dents met there. Here was Preston King, of New York, the life-long
friend of Governor Marcy. Here was Cassius M. Clay, of Kentucky,
a relative of the great Senator. Here was Henry Wilson, of Massa
chusetts, fresh from the Senate Chamber where Sumner had been as
saulted. Here was Francis P. Blair, the friend of General Jackson.
Here was David Wilmot, whose good fortune it Avas to move the Wil-
mot Proviso. The Convention, on its first ballot, gave to John
Charles Fremont three hundred and fifty-nine votes. Judge McLean,
of Ohio, received one hundred and ninety-six. General Fremont was
thus made the candidate. William L. Dayton received the majority
of votes for Vice-president, though one hundred and ten were given
to Abraham Lincoln, of Illinois.
Fremont was well known to the country, and favorably, as the ex-
Generai plorer of the mysterious regions of the West. As early as
Fremont. 1842, a young officer in the army, he had been sent out, at
his own request, into the "great American desert" of those days.
He had shown rare temper, perseverance, and executive ability, in a
series of explorations carried forward by him ; he had corrected many
grave mistakes in American geography; had opened California to
Western emigration ; and had, indeed, laid the foundations for the
Pacific Railway of after years. For the purposes of the new party
organization, it was desirable, not to say necessary, that its candi
date should have had no close connection with either political party.
It has been a habit of officers in the regular army to keep themselves
almost proudly free from any such connection. It was certainly an
advantage that Colonel Fremont was the son-in-law of a statesman so
senator distinguished as Colonel Benton, for a generation Senator
from Missouri. This Senator, though a slaveholder, and a
slaveholder in the District of Columbia, had in many critical moments
refused to act with the Fire-eaters, and, in face of the current of
public opinion in Missouri, had shown himself the friend of the set
tlers in Kansas.
The seceders from the American Convention had met in New York
18o6.j
ELECTION OF BUCHANAN.
423
on the 12th of June. They had proposed for the Presidency, the
Speaker of the House, Mr. Banks ; and for Vice-president,
William F. Johnson, of Pennsylvania. These candidates oftheAmer-
r., T .,i i ican party.
were afterwards withdrawn.
Three candidates for the Presidency were thus before the people ;
and for the first time in many years, each represented a real Wise calls a
conviction. Each indeed was a man who had given proof of01^"^,0,™
of real ability. Mr. Buchanan stood for the South and its ors'
policy. Colonel Fremont stood for the non-extension of slavery.
Mr. Fillmore stood
for the Union of the
States, and for that
strong conservative
feeling whic h re
garded all questions
as little, in compari
son with this Union.
An incident of the
autumn, which fore
shadowed what was
to follow, was a pro
posal made by Gov
ernor Henry A. Wise,
of Virginia, for a
conference of the
Governors of South
ern States, to take
into consideration
the state of the coun
try. The invitation
was on the whole
kindly received, but there was no meeting except of the Governors
of Virginia and the two Carolinas.
The election resulted in the choice of Mr. Buchanan, which was
due wholly to the division of his antagonists. Of the pop- Theelec.
ular vote he received 1,838,169. Here were more than two tion'
hundred thousand votes more than President Pierce had received, so
intense was the excitement of the canvass. But he was still in a
minority of nearly four hundred thousand. Colonel Fremont had
1,341,000 votes. Mr. Fillmore had 875,000. Of the Electoral votes
Mr. Buchanan received one hundred and seventy-four. Colonel Fre
mont had one hundred and fourteen, and Mr. Fillmore the eight votes
of Maryland, — which showed itself true to its mid- way position be-
James Buchanan.
424 THE KANSAS STRUGGLE. [CiiAi-. XVI.
tween North and South. Mr. Buchanan owed his election to the vote
of Pennsylvania. As the canvass went forward in this State, he had
pledged himself to insure to Kansas an honest vote of her own people.
With this assurance, Mr. Buchanan obtained a plurality of the vote
of Pennsylvania, which proved essential for his election.1
But when he came into office, the auspices were all against him.
No President, except the second Adams, had ever been chosen by so
small a proportion of the popular vote.2 Of the Northern States,
Mr. Buchanan had received the votes of Pennsylvania, New Jersey,
Illinois, and Indiana. But in two of these he was in a minority. In
Pennsylvania, his majority was only one thousand and twenty-five in
a vote of four hundred and sixty thousand ; and in Indiana it was not
two thousand in a vote of nearly two hundred and forty thousand.
The days of Northern men with Southern principles were over.
Still Mr. Buchanan was not so weak a man as his forgotten prede-
Buchananas cessor. He was not a fool, though his political career was
by no means free from vacillations and inconsistencies. lie
probably hoped, in his old age, that with the prestige of the name of
President, he could control such spirits as he had in his Cabinet ;
such men as Howell Cobb, and Floyd, who afterward abused their of
ficial position under his eyes, to prepare for war against the nation
which they pretended to serve. The President's first message re
peated the assurances that the discussion of slavery had come to an
end. It was remembered afterward for its attack on the clergy of
the country, whom he charged with fomenting the disturbance which
had so endangered its institutions. But in that message, he declared
himself friendly to the admission of Kansas into the Union with a
constitution agreeable to a majority of the settlers. He referred to
a decision of the Supreme Court, — soon to be made, — and asked for
acquiescence in it, whatever its character. Such a reference, from a
President to an undelivered opinion of the Supreme Court, was a
novelty. It soon appeared, however, that he had reason for going
outside of precedent.
The decision referred to, of which the new President had had some
The Dred early intimation, was the decision in the u Dred Scott " case.
scott case. ^n ac^jon }ia(j been begun by Dred Scott, a negro, in the cir
cuit court of Missouri, for his freedom and that of his children. His
claim was that he had been removed, in 1884, to Illinois, then a free
1 The details of this transaction are given in a very curious speech by Mr. J. W. Forney,
who obtained the pledge from Buchanan, — read at the Quarter Century celebration of the
settlers of Kansas, at Bismarck Grove, September 20, 1880.
2 Mr. Adams's vote in 1824 was only 29.92 percent, of the popular vote. In 1844, Mr.
Polk's was 49. 55 per cent. In 1848, General Taylor's was 47. 36 per cent. Mr. Buchanan's
was 45.34.
of thr
MiyS'inri and *•.>'•'• *:^;;
n;-t<tor, replied thn?
'.ring f»u action; »a<
.-.iuve.-. The i«>\\er < "••
r.di heueh. T!^ ,-*«,.
ision came, for \vi.u-5j
jvnce., it swept the- \vr
\\ as prepared by .fudi/<
rase on Sanford's th>s-
i/en of Missouri,
inally. The opinion
Citation. ReiV?
'..•endence, that ;;
uithors did not- <-nilyHci.
jiad l.een exoludt'd /|'.:".n »:
•.nous, and devo-ttfj f !<U
(he idea eoidd n^t •:•«> i-it--
-nly tAvo provifioDS w/>;i?{j
MS property.
\\7il3i this statpjH* 'it uitf
••ic; himself jt i-he !\»^ fi':
;i the ground th;ii -'u-
ir*".' bv tiu- Missouri ' '-inij
MH Missouri Compvom a«'
hid^v Mcl^jfin and. rj-id^-
(Mv'iit. as Mr. B'jnirn said.
tiu- Federal GovernTaent.
•l No longer the exci'i-ho .
• 1th ireedoJti tii:' ev-.-ot--
Hif '^.o'e Nor/lu ai-i •
i it'1 !IO\V
abit- :o oliu
•Mid 1 lie .Hf'.
•!-:ul one liu
tit
Wt-Tv. o--i>
• in tin.d include ti«*:t'
,.ied. The Chief Jf
iif rt sti-d his, jj< u
k<-:; hisii into tt»r
'irf.oiul the I-.HX.I
witioual. from
. > .i ; but it was in
v> departure in tbi
• v the organic In'*
it ; he rule ; but s5:»vi
;i decision iyio\f»t
niost conservative ??:•*
forever changed
-.if]'. !s-">7. Tu» f»«iii
rlie division i»i«?*^.W
f*
_,-iit votes. !hc ]f: ;:i:'-t...
urfc
'iV: lu« iiirticnl'. ',-••-•
«iis' rust tliroi'-4«; !)««•
\\ Itieh no man !:
:M«v.'ify ui the
•,vere uo\\ ad«i
1857.] THE DRED SCOTT CASE. 425
State, by his master, and afterwards taken into territory north of the
Compromise line ; that in 1838 only had he been taken back into
Missouri and sold again to his present master. To this Sanford, his
master, replied that Scott was not a citizen of Missouri, and could not
bring an action ; and also that he and his children were Sanford's
slaves. The lower courts had differed, and the case came before the
full bench. The case was twice argued with care. When the de
cision came, for which the new President asked attention and concur
rence, it swept the whole ground indeed. The opinion of the Court
was prepared by Judge Taney, the Chief Justice. It dismissed the
case on Sanford's first reply, namely, that Dred Scott was not a cit
izen of Missouri. Black men could not be citizens, the Court said vir
tually. The opinion went historically back to the origin of the Con
stitution. Referring even to the words of the Declaration of Inde
pendence, that all men are equal, the Court said it was plain that its
authors did not embrace the negro race, which, by common consent,
had been excluded from the civilized governments, in the family of
nations, and devoted to slavery. In the Constitution, the Court said,
the idea could not be entertained that negroes were citizens, " as the
only two provisions which point to them and include them, treat them
as property."
With this statement the case itself ended. The Chief Justice, avail
ing himself of the fact that the plaintiff rested his plea for freedom
on the ground that his owner had taken him into territory made
free by the Missouri Compromise, went beyond the record to declare
the Missouri Compromise to be unconstitutional. From the decision
Judge McLean and Judge Curtis dissented; but it was in itself suffi
cient, as Mr. Henton said, to make a new departure in the working of
the Federal Government. It made slavery the organic law of the land.
" No longer the exception with freedom the rule ; but slavery the rule,
with freedom the exception." Such a decision .moved the heart of
the whole North, and showed to the most conservative that the whole
line of argument and of action was forever changed.
The new Congress met in December, 1857. The Democrats were
able to choose their own Speaker, the division between the American
and the Republican parties giving a House in which the Democrats
had one hundred and twenty-eight votes, the Republicans ninety-two,
and the Americans fourteen.
To the difficulties of a minority in the popular vote, and a general
distrust through the North, were now added those of a great
commercial revulsion. One of those ebb-tides of trade for dfs™TJrsCof
which no man has yet fully accounted, and which have been
referred by bold physicists even to changes in the heavenly bodies.
426 THE KANSAS STRUGGLE. [CHAI-. XVI.
swept over the world. Such crises always follow periods of great
commercial activity and supposed prosperity. In this case the im
mense treasure drawn from the mines of California had greatly en
larged the banking operations of the country. The great railroad
system, which secured for the agricultural States the markets of the
world, was developed with rapidity that would have once seemed
fabulous. New institutions of credit, on a scale gigantic to the enter
prise of earlier times, were established in the larger cities. It was
the failure of one of these — the " Ohio Life and Trust Company "
- which precipitated the fatal discovery. The world of commerce
found how large was the " inflation " and how hollow the promise,
on which this great prosperity had been reared. The civilized world
felt the shock, and commerce did not recover from it for many years.
The Treasury of the United States was emptied in the crash, and the
new Government was not even able to pay its officers.
The vote on the Lecompton Constitution in Kansas was the test of
that pledge of a "fair election" which Buchanan had given to the
Pennsylvania Democrats. He said that now the question was a mere
point of honor, which the North could afford to yield ; that
Buchanan's L iiir i
faithless- all men knew that Kansas would be free ; that, so soon as
ness.
admitted, the State conld change its Constitution, and the
South could not then complain that her rights had been abandoned.
In this declaration he broke faith with a large portion of the party
which had till now sustained him. In the Senate a bill was passed
to admit Kansas under this Constitution. But the old Democratic
majority could no longer be relied upon. Bell, Broderick, and Stuart,
and, most fatal sign of all, Douglas, voted for a substitute offered by
Mr. Crittenden, but not adopted : that the Constitution should be sub
mitted to the people of Kansas, who, should they reject this, would be
authorized to take the preliminary steps for the formation of
Admission ^
of Kansas another. In the House the substitute was again presented
proposed. . °
by a Democrat, Montgomery, of Pennsylvania, and adopted,
and the two Houses disagreeing, a committee of conference was ap
pointed which drew up a compromising bill, Seward of the Senate and
Howard of the House dissenting. From the name of its author, this
plan was called the " English Compromise." It proposed a submis
sion to the people, but only on the hard conditions that, if
The " Eng-
USD com- they refused, they should lose their allotments for education
and for internal improvements, and should not be admitted
until their population numbered ninety-three thousand three hundred
and fifty inhabitants, the quota at that time for one Representative.
This "compromise" passed. The Constitution was sent to Kansas,
and, as has been seen, the people absolutely rejected it. The vote
was 1,788 in its favor and 11,300 against it.
1857.]
THE MORMONS.
427
In the autumn of 1857, the defiant resolution of the Mormons in
Utah compelled the President to remove their Governor, TheMor.
Brigham Young, and appoint Alfred Cuming, an officer of mons-
the army, his successor. Young was the " prophet," so called, the im
mediate successor of the founder of the Mormon Church. As the tide
of emigration rolled westward, the colony of this remarkable people
had become of national importance, with vitality enough in their faith
to gather together a church of from thirty to forty thousand people,
and, as the Church was the State, with strength enough to defy the
Federal Government. Driven first from Missouri to Illinois, in 1838,
Salt Lake City.
and thence, ten years afterward, into the wilderness, they sought a
resting-place and refuge in what was then called "The Great Amer
ican Desert," and pitched their tents and built their tabernacle on the
shores of Salt Lake. Their government was, and is, a hierarchy ;
their faith was founded on the pretended discovery of a new revela
tion written on golden plates that had lain buried for centuries in a
hill at Manchester, New York, and were dug up by Joseph Smith ; on
this, in after years, the lecherous temper of their chief saints had im
posed the system of polygamy as a later revelation to Smith ; and it is
hard to say which is the greater marvel — that there should be cre
dulity and ignorance enough among the civilized peoples of the nine-
428 THE KANSAS STRUGGLE. [CiiAi-. XVI.
teenth century for the formation of such a sect, or that an enlight
ened government should have so long tolerated organized immorality
under the guise of a religion. " The twin relic of barbarism," as it was
called by Owen Lovejoy, could not, like slavery, seek protection un
der the sheltering compromises of the Constitution.
With an army of only three hundred, the new Governor was sent to
his destination. The Mormon prophet forbade his entrance into the
city, and it was only by a mortifying submission that this force was
allowed to remain unmolested, in its encampment. With the next
summer the army was reenforced, the Mormons yielded ; and since
that time, the national Government has appointed a u Gentile," so
called, to the government of the Territory.
Fac-simile of Characters of the Mormon Plates-
President Fierce had permitted the departure1 from the country of
an adventurer named William Walker, who attempted to
waiker-s make himself master of Nicaragua, with a force of four hun-
Kxpcdition. -.. TTII 111 • • • i
area men. He had even held some communication with an
envoy of Walker's. Once and again Walker had been forced to re
turn. But on the 24th of November, 1857, he landed at Grey town
again, in sight of a vessel of the United States navy. Commodore
Paulding arrested him and sent him back for trial. The jury, how
ever, when he was tried at New Orleans, failed to agree.
In the summer of this year, on the 4th of August, the first tele-
Atiantic graphic message passed from America to Europe. The
•graph. cabie had i,een ]aid successfully with the assistance of the
governments of England and the United States. The communi
cation was soon interrupted by an accident, but before long the regu
lar transmission of public and private news between the continents
was established.
The elections of 1858 taught even the President that he had relied
too far on the large vote which elected him. In the State of
Proposal to O
purchase New i ork only four Democrats were returned to the House
Cuba. J
of Representatives. The extreme Southern party, however,
brought forward, at the short session, a bill to permit the Government
to purchase Cuba for thirty million dollars. It met the full Republi
can opposition, and was at last abandoned by its friends.
1858.]
JOHN BROWN.
429
In the midst, however, of the victories and defeats of the men who
Avere prominent before the country, careless of the hopes
if a •,..,, ,> John Brown.
and iears or politicians or 01 statesmen a poor man, un
known to them all, was, in his wild way, concerting the plans which
precipitated the crisis of the nation's history. John Brown had al
ready devised a movement of those whom he called the " True
Friends of Freedom." It has been remembered that he was of Puri
tan blood. His whole life was characterized by Puritan enthusiasm,
as well as by the personal purity and stern will which belong to the
Puritan character. Among the early emigrants from New York to
Kansas who determined to make
it a free State, he was one.
Among all the brave and devot
ed men of that struggle, none
were braver or more devoted,
and none more dreaded by the
" border -ruffians," than John
Brown, of Ossawatomie. lie
no more forgave than he forgot
the atrocious murder of one of
his sons, and that another had
been driven to insanity by cruel
treatment when a prisoner.
From that moment he devoted
his life, all that he was, and all
that he had, to one single pur
pose, — the extirpation of sla
very. He believed, that God
hated it, and he believed that he was God's messenger to destroy
it. Early in 1858 he called together at Chatham, in Can- Themeeting
ada, a quiet convention of the " True Friends of Freedom," atchatham-
where, with the utmost secrecy, was drawn up a " Provisional Con
stitution for the people of the United States." It is not probable
that more than two or three persons were present, but they chose
Brown commander-in-chief. Richard Realf Secretary of State, and
J. H. Kagi Secretary of War. As early as the autumn of 1857
Brown had organized a small body of men, and had undertaken to
give them military instruction.
From this time forward he proposed the invasion of Virginia by a
small military force, with the expectation of arousing the IIi;J plan of
slaves in that State so that they should assert their own invasion-
freedom. He was able to control some small part of the arms which
had been freely provided for the use of the Free-State men in
430
THE KANSAS STRUGGLE.
[CHAP. XVI.
Kansas; and lie was in communication, from time to time, with the
truest friends, in New England, of the Kansas settlers. From a se
cret committee in Boston he received about four thousand dollars in
money, and about twice that value in arms. Of these gifts the
larger part were made by George L. Stearns, a conscientious and un
flinching friend of Kansas through the whole period of troubles. An
Englishman named Forbes, a retired officer of the British army, who
had been employed as a military drillmaster of recruits for Kansas,
informed Senators Seward, Hale, and Wilson, in Ma}r, 1859, that
Arsenal at Harper's Ferry.
the arms furnished for the Kansas settlers had been obtained l>y
Brown, who would use them unlawfully. This information the Sen
ators sent to the Massachusetts Kansas Committee, who at once wrote
Brown that the arms must not be used except for the defence of
Kansas. His plans were thus for the moment checked. But as the
summer passed, Mr. Stearns obtained possession of that portion of
the arms which were his own, and transferred them to Brown, witli
four hundred dollars. Brown at once went to Maryland and estab-
Movesmto Hshed himself five miles from Harper's Ferry, at the Ken
nedy Farm. Of this the Secretary of War was apprised as
early as August, but he took no notice of the information. On the
16th of October, with fourteen white men and four negroes armed
and equipped for war, BroAVii took possession of the United States
Armory buildings at Harper's Ferry, stopped the railroad trains, cap-
1859.] JOHN BROWN IN VIRGINIA. 431
tured several citizens, liberated several slaves, and held the town
about thirty hours. Virginia was in a paroxysm. The whole
country thrilled to the heart. The invasion of Kansas from
Missouri to establish slavery did not create anything like the
excitement aroused by this invasion of Virginia by fifteen
white men and four negroes, to give freedom to the slaves.
Brown's own hope was, that the slaves of Virginia would
immediately rally about him and assert their freedom. But
there has never been any evidence that he had negotiated
with them, nor did they ever show any intention of sustaining
him.
The Government of the United States at once sent troops
to Harper's Ferry. Brown retired to the "-engine-
1 J Capture at
house, where he was attacked and captured by a Harper's
detachment of United States marines. They were
under the command of Colonel Robert E. Lee, soon to be him
self the Commander-in-chief of an insurrection, at that time on
the staff of General Scott. Brown was wounded in several
places. Thirteen of his band, including two of his sons, were
killed or mortally wounded. Brown and his six followers I
were at once tried, convicted, and executed.1
Three days after his execution the new Congress met at
Washington. Every effort was made to convict the leaders of
the Free-State party of complicity with Brown in this effort.
Through the whole country it gave occasion for the friends of .
the Union to point out the danger which they, thought latent I
in all efforts to arrest the course of slavery. At the South it/
conveyed the impression that the Free-State men of the North
meant insurrection and liberation. From this time; at least,
the intention to divide the Union at any moment Effectofhis
when Southern supremacy ceased to be absolute, be- attemi)t-
came the universal Southern idea. In the minds of most of the
Southern leaders such had been the intention long before, and
there can be hardly a doubt that had Fremont been elected in
1856 the attempt would then have been made to dissolve the
Union, which the election of Buchanan postponed only for
four years.
The new Constitution of Kansas, ratified by the people in
John October, was laid before Congress at this session. So strong
p^e. was the Northern sentiment in the House that a bill admitting
1 John Brown's body was given to his friends and was buried at North Elba, New York.
That "his soul goes marching on " was the refrain of a song, to the music of which many
a Northern regiment marched in less than two years to suppress the Southern rebellion.
432 THE KANSAS STRUGGLE. [CiiAi-. XVI.
the new State passed by a vote of one hundred and thirty-four to
seventy-three. But, what may be called the dying: act of
Kansas •> Jo
question the party of slavery was the refusal of the Senate, on the
disposed of. _ . ,. i
7th of June, to take up the bill, by a vote of thirty-two
to twenty-eight. The next winter, when, on the 21st of January,
1861, the Southern Senators, with some characteristic effort at dra
matic effect, withdrew from the Senate, the first Senators from Kan
sas entered it as the representatives of a free State.
The country approached the canvass for the next Presidential elec
tion with a distinct understanding of the threat of the ex-
I'residential 01
campaign of treme Southern leaders that the success of the Republican
party should be the signal for disunion. So far as this
threat was believed, it induced conservative men to withdraw their
support from the Republican party and to attempt, at least, some
midway course. But it was not generally believed through the North
ern States. Arrogance was considered to be a habit of the planta
tion, and to govern by threats to be the policy of masters who were
used to slaves. As a token of conciliation the Democratic party held
its convention, not at one of the central cities, but at Charleston,
Democratic South Carolina. Mr. Douglas, of Illinois, was the member
convention. Q£ t]ie par^y wno carried the most popularity at the North,
but, as has been already said, he had refused his support to the Le-
compton Constitution. He would have lost his own constituency by
any other course ; but from that moment the Southern leaders op
posed him with bitter but undeserved hatred.
When the Convention met, its committee on credentials had to
decide at once on the claims of two delegations from New York, and
those of two delegations from Illinois. In both cases they decided in
favor of Mr. Douglas's friends. For nearly a week a debate raged
on the resolutions to be presented as the "platform" of the Con
vention. The result showed that the Douglas faction were in the
majority. They had been satisfied with the platform of four years
before, while the Southern delegates insisted " that there was no
power to prevent slavery in the Territories," and that Government
ought to " protect the rights of person and property on the high
seas." The last statement was supposed to cover the African slave-
trade. So soon as this vote was announced, the delegations from
Alabama, Mississippi, Florida, and Texas, withdrew, and a part of
those from Louisiana, South Carolina, Arkansas, Delaware, and North
Carolina. The secede rs were- encouraged by the most extravagant
approval of the citizens of Charleston. On the ninth day of the
Convention a vote was reached. It had been decided that two thirds
of the votes should be necessary to a nomination. In fifty-seven bal-
I860.]
THE PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN OF I860.
433
lotings Mr. Douglas's vote reached a clear majority. A motion was
then made to adjourn to Baltimore on the 18th of June. By this
adjourned Convention Mr. Douglas was named the Democratic can
didate, and Mr. Fitzpatrick of Alabama,1 the candidate for Vice-pres
ident. But this was not till the delegates of seven States, and a part
of those from Massachusetts, had withdrawn. The seceding delega
tions held a Convention on the 28th of June, and named J. C. Breck-
inridge of Kentucky, and Joseph Lane of Oregon, as their candidates
for President and Vice-president.
On the 9th of May the " Constitutional Union National Conven
tion " met. It was called in good faith by the remnants of
the old Whig and American parties, who still hoped to avoid tionai union
the inevitable conflict. On the second ballot, John Bell of
Tennessee was made the candidate for President ; Edward Everett
Lincoln's Early Home — Elizabethtown, Ky.
of Massachusetts, who had expressly charged his friends in the Con
vention not to permit his nomination as President, was nominated
for Vice-president, because he had neglected to say he would not be
second when he had refused to be first. He did not, however, decline
the nomination.
On the 1.6th of May the Republican Convention met. The choice
lay between Mr. Seward, who had wisely led the Republican forces
in the Senate, and Abraham Lincoln. Mr. Lincoln was not so well
1 Fitzpatrick decliui'd, ami II. V. Johnson, uf Georgia, was named in liis place.
VOL. iv. 28
434 THE KANSAS STRUGGLE. [CHAP. XVI.
known sis Mr. Seward at the East, but in the West he had distin-
Bepubiican g"ish<?d himself in a canvass of profound interest, in which
convention. jie j]a(j foeen opposed to Douglas. For Vice-president the
Convention named Hannibal Hainlin of Maine. The four candidates
were not unworthy of the crisis. They represented the principles of
the voters who supported them. The days of available or make-shift
candidates were in the past and the future.
The canvass was intensely earnest and anxious. All felt it to be
the most momentous the country had ever known ; some understood
that it was a question of war, of free government at the North, and
of liberty in the Southern States. In the Southern States no votes
were given to the Republican candidates, excepting in Virginia, where
Mr. Lincoln received less than two thousand, and in Kentucky, where
he received thirteen hundred. Of the popular vote he received
Election of 1,866,000, the largest vote which had then ever been given
Lincoln. for any President. But even this vote was not a majority
of the whole. Mr. Douglas received l,37o,000 votes ; Mr. Breckin-
ridge, 848,000 ; Mr. Bell, 691,000. But in the division of the Electo-
o "
ral vote Mr. Lincoln had one hundred and eighty — being that of all
the free States, except New Jersey, who gave him, however, four out
of her seven, — being a clear majority of fifty-seven over all. Mr.
Breckinridge had seventy-two votes ; Mr. Bell thirty-nine ; Mr.
Douglas twelve.
rortress Mor
CHAPTER XVII.
OPENING OF THE WAR.
FULFILMENT OF THE SLAVEHOLDERS' PURPOSE. — SOUTH CAROLINA LEADS. — SEW-
ARD'S MISTAKEN PHILOSOPHY. — BUCHANAN'S POLICY. — ACTION OF CONGRESS. —
PROPOSED PEACE COMPROMISES. — ORGANIZATION OF THE CONFEDERACY. — SEIZ
URE OK FORTS ANI> ARSENALS. — TWIGGS'S SURRENDER. — OCCUPATION OF FORT
SUMTER. — ITS FALL. — THE FIRST CALL FOR TROOPS. — THE Mon IN BALTI
MORE. — FIGHT AT Bi<; BETHEL. — OPERATIONS IN WESTERN VIRGINIA. — BATTLE
OF BULL RUN. — REBEL ATROCITIES. — BALL'S BLUFF. — REBELLION IN MISSOURI.
— DEATH OF GENERAL LYON. — FREMONT IN MISSOURI. — FIRST EMANCIPATION
PROCLAMATION. — SECESSION OF TENNESSEE. — NAVAL EXPEDITIONS ALONG THE
COAST. — THE TRENT AFFAIR.
THIS volume lias missed its aim if it has not shown the central fact
of the history of the United States to be, from the beginning of the
century to the beginning of the slaveholders' rebellion, a determina
tion of a class to get possession of the Government for its own pur
poses. The men belonging to that class sincerely believed, no doubt,
that the best and truest government was an oligarchy founded upon
property in man ; and the more thoughtful among them accepted the
logical conclusion, that the most perfect state of society must be that
where the many, who labor with their hands, should be, without re
gard to color or to race, in the absolute ownership of the few. As,
however, their system was so far imperfect that their slaves were of
one race only, marked by a distinctive hue, they would make the
most of that. They undoubtedly accepted the Union at its forma
tion for the common good. But it soon became their fixed policy,
that the moment the Union was diverted from the support of slavery
436
OPENING OF THE WAR.
[CHAP. XVII.
Determina-
tionofthe
South.
as its chief function, and they, therefore, ceased to be the ruling
class, its mission was fulfilled and there must be an end of it.
The moment had come in the election of Abraham Lincoln to the
Presidency. They accepted that fact as a new declaration
. •> i TLT
of independence at the North; as evidence that, thereafter,
. .
the chief end of the Union would be the protection of those
social and political relations which belong to the condition of society
where men are free ; that free men who did not believe in slavery
would thereafter administer the government, and not slaveholders
who believed in nothing else. For half a century they had watched
with anxious eyes
and with their tent-
^ ropes in their hands,
the first glow of the
coming of this new
and portentous stra
in the East ; and
now that i t h ad
risen full and fair
above the horizon,
the tents we r e
folded.
South Carolina
did not wait for Mr.
Lincoln's election
before taking the
first steps to secede
from the Union.
Why, indeed, wait'/
Of the result of the
election there could be no doubt. It was not the character of the man
or of his probable administration that was in question at the South ;
it was enough to know that the party behind him was a purely North
ern party, which would yield nothing to slavery beyond the demands
of the most rigid interpretation of the Constitution. The coming
conflict was inevitable, and the marvel is, that men could so misun
derstand the history of the past, and the character of the South, as
to believe it could be avoided. Mr. Seward said, in private, in the
spring of 1860, — before the delegates to the National Convention
were chosen, and when he admitted no doubt of his own nomination
and election to the Presidency, — that with him as President, there
would be no trouble with the South. The South knew him and
trusted him; knew that in the administration of affairs he would
Lincoln's Home in Springfield.
I860.] SE WARD'S MISTAKEN PHILOSOPHY. 437
never overstep the boundaries of the Constitution, while she knew
how sincerely he believed that in the providence of God slavery
must perish from the earth. He thanked God for the devotion of
the Abolitionists to the cause of humanity and of civilization, but
as an officer of the Government he was necessarily confined to a
narrower field, beyond the limits of which he could not go. But
that great statesman was no more mistaken in his expectation of
being President than he was in the supposition of what the South
would do in the event of his election to that office. The
Mr. Sew-
Soiltll looked beyond men to the anti-slavery North behind anrsphii-
" . osophy.
them, and would have as certainly seceded at the election
of Seward as at the election of Lincoln. It would have been, doubt
less, greatly to Mr. Seward's perplexity. Providence, he believed,
would deal with slavery as it dealt with other things which came to
an end in the course of time, without confusion and without vio
lence. And so firmly persuaded was he of this providential scheme,
which admitted of no sudden and violent remedy, that it was with
great reluctance he could bring himself to admit that the war, when
it came, wras anything more than a temporary disturbance.
The simple question, when Congress convened in December, was,
whether the United States wras a Nation or a mere congeries of thirty-
three nations, each one of which was at liberty to withdraw from the
confederacy at its own pleasure, without regard to the wishes or inter
ests of the rest. But not yet, even, with the Southern States falling
away, one by one, from the Union like the dropping timbers from a
burning house, could that question get itself considered. Rather
another question usurped its place, — whether the union of the States
was not of so much greater value that any sacrifice of free thought,
free speech, and the government of freemen should not be made for
its preservation.
To this latter question Congress, and to some degree the whole
country, addressed themselves through the anxious months A(,tion of
of that gloomy winter. At Washington vacillation and im- Oonsress-
becility ruled in the executive branch of the Government. In the
conduct of Congress there was neither wisdom nor courage, except
among the few pronounced anti-slavery men, like Wade or Hale in
the Senate, Lovejoy or Stevens in the House. These men followed
the example of the old Puritan divine of Massachusetts, of whom it
was said two centuries before, that " he was a bold man and would
speak his mind." The threat of disunion had for them no terrors.
They were quite ready to try, even with arms if it must be, the is
sue, whether sovereignty was in the Nation or in the separate States.
Otherwise, all the courage was on the part of the Southern represent-
438 OPENING OF THE WAR. [CiiAr. XVII.
. atives, the courage often of insolent audacity as they saw the
spirit of ready subserviency with which they were met by so many
of the Northern members. The extreme men of the South knew
what they wanted, had determined upon the way by which they
meant to get it, and turned with undisguised contempt from all of
fers of compromise, though the offers embraced all that the South
had ever contended for.
The " Crittenden Compromise," as it was called from its author,
a Senator from Kentucky, was before the Senate all winter,
The Com- J '
promises and was once lost for want of Southern — not Northern
proposed.
Republican — votes, because the South preferred disunion.
Yet it gave up to slavery all territory south of 80° 30' ; it forbade
Congress to abolish slavery, even in places under its exclusive juris
diction within the States, or in the District of Columbia so long as it
existed in Virginia and Maryland ; it provided for the legal transpor
tation of slaves, as slaves, through the free States ; it secured to the
slaveholder payment by the United States for his fugitive slave if his
capture had been obstructed ; and it prohibited Congress from inter
fering with slavery anywhere. It was not till in the confusion of the
closing hours of the session, that this measure was defeated by a sin
gle vote ; but then it mattered little what was done by a body whose
members from the seceded States had been permitted to withdraw
with much ceremony of leave-taking, instead of being ordered into
the custody of the sergeant-at-arms.
In both Houses, committees were appointed to devise some other
way of meeting the threatened troubles than the direct one of the
immediate suppression of insurrection and the punishment of treason.
One of these committees reported a joint resolution, which passed
both Houses, proposing an amendment to the Constitution, prohibit
ing Congress to interfere with slavery anywhere, without the consent
of all the States. The House passed resolutions — reported by the
same committee of one from each State — affirming that all State
legislation interfering with the capture of fugitive slaves should be
repealed ; that slavery should not be prohibited in New Mexico ; and
that the North disclaimed all intention of meddling with it in the
States.
In February, a Peace Congress, suggested by Virginia, convened
Peace con- at Washington. In it wei'c represented all the Northern
States except Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, California,
and Oregon, and all the Southern States except the eight that had
already seceded. The result of its three weeks of deliberation was,
as Mr. Sumner said, to propose " to give slavery positive protection
in the Constitution, making it national instead of sectional/' The
1861.]
PROPOSED PEACE COMPROMISES.
439
resolutions it adopted were conceived in essentially the same spirit
that suggested the Crittenden Compromise, and the resolutions of the
committee which the House had adopted. It was the North that was
arraigned as criminal ; the North that must repent of her evil ways ;
the North that must clothe* herself in sackcloth, and sprinkle ashes
upon her head.
If the South needed encouragement to secede, she had far more
than she could have ever hoped for. Party leaders at the
•XT i i •(> i • e i c I>os'tion of
.North were as ready to sacrifice everything for the sake of Northern
. ii" • politicians.
peace and of union, or to avow openly their sympathy with
the slaveholders, as the majority of Congress were to offer a submis
sion that was almost abject.
The Mayor of New York, Fer
nando Wood, proposed to the
Common Council early in Jan
uary, that, should there be a
separation of the States, the
city should declare itself inde
pendent of them all. How sin
cerely he hoped for the success
of disunion he showed before
the end of the month, by avow
ing his regret that he had no
power to punish the police, who
seized a quantity of arms about
to be sent to the rebel State
of Georgia. A Democratic
Convention assembled, about
the same time, at Albany, whose
object was to protest against
the use of force for the suppres
sion of an insurrection of slave
holders. The party was repre
sented at that meeting by its
most eminent leaders in the State, and no expression of opinion there
met with so hearty a response as the declaration, that if force were
used it should be "• inaugurated at home,'' — an echo of the assurance
given by ex-President Pierce to Jefferson Davis, some months before,
that should there be fighting, it would be "within our own borders,
in our own streets," between the anti-slavery people and their oppo
nents. In December, a great meeting in Philadelphia passed reso
lutions of submission as absolute as if Pennsylvania were already a
conquered province. An ex-Governor of New Jersey, in a letter to
Jefferson Davis.
440 OPENING OF THE WAR. [CHAP. XVII.
the people, declared that that State would join the Southern Confed
eracy- The more influential of the Democratic press talked loudly
and continuously against any attempt to coerce the South : it must
be conciliated. Many of the Republican journals were not less re
markable for their conspicuous want of manliness. Thurlow Weed,
the editor of one widely known, proposed a Convention of North
ern States to show the South how they had mistaken Northern char
acter, and how much the North was ready to concede for the sake
of union. The editor of the most influential of all Republican jour
nals, Horace Greeley, said that " if the Cotton States shall decide
that they can do better out of the Union than in it, we insist on let
ting them go in peace. The right to secede may be a revolutionary
one, but it exists nevertheless ; and we do not see how one party can
have a right to do what another party has a right to prevent." l
All this exercised an important influence at the South. It con
vinced the secession leaders that there was no courage for a fight in
the Northern people, or that, if a portion of them should undertake
to suppress a rebellion, the Northern allies of the rebels were strong
enough to hold that portion in check. But it did not convince them
that the Northern people would give up henceforth their opposition
to slavery, and quietly submit to whatever rule the slaveholders chose
to impose upon them. No compromise that the wit of man could de
vise would bind them to such a bargain. The South knew this, and
was immovable, therefore, in its determination to establish an inde
pendent confederacy. But she was quite as wrong in that other
conclusion, — that the North would not fight ; that it would permit
the Republic to go to destruction ; permit it, that slavery, in one half
of it, might be made perpetual. Herein was the true issue, whatever
party politicians might think of it, — the inevitable war for the
Union was to be a war for the integrity of a nation and for a free
republic.
On the 20th of December South Carolina passed an ordinance of
secession. In January and February, Georgia, Alabama,
tion of the Mississippi, Louisiana, and Texas followed her. A conven-
. *,r
tion of delegates from these seven States met in February
at Montgomery, Alabama, and organized a provisional gov
ernment for "The Confederate States of America ; " and on the 9th
of that month Jefferson Davis of Mississippi, and Alexander II. Ste
phens of Georgia, were chosen as provisional President and Vice-
1 It should be added, however, injustice to Mr. Weed, that the war, when it came, had
no more ardent supporter than he. Mr. Greeley never receded from the illogical position
taken in the article quoted — that insurrection and the right of revolution were one and
the same thing; and his efforts after the war broke out were devoted, 'not to making it
effectual, but to bringing it to an end by negotiation, which necessarily involved disunion.
1861.]
SEIZURE OF FORTS AND ARSENALS.
441
Seizure of
forts and
arsenals.
president, to hold office for one year. The first steps taken by the new
Government were, to possess itself of the arsenals and forts within
the territory over which it claimed
jurisdiction. Some of these had
already been seized by the authori
ties of the seceding States. The
arsenals, which Mr. Bu
chanan's Secretary of
War, John B. Floyd, had
bountifully supplied with arms be
longing to the United States Gov
ernment,1 were easily taken. The
forts on the Mississippi, below New
Orleans, and those at the entrance
of Mobile Bay, were also secured
without a struggle. But when the
Pensacola navy-yard was seized,
Lieutenant Adam J. Slemmer, com
manding at Fort McRae, trans
ferred his small garrison to Fort
Pickens, a stronger work, on Santa
Rosa Island, where he was subse
quently re en forced by troops
brought in two United States ves
sels, and the post was held by the
national forces throughout the war.
The forts at Key West and the
Tortugas were also held. The
greater part of the regular army
of the United States was in Texas,
commanded by General
David E. Twiggs. Three
commissioners from a rebel Com
mittee of Public Safety met him
at San Antonio, February 18th,
where they demanded and re
ceived the capitulation of the en
tire force, and a surrender of all
the military property of the United
1 He had recently sent to the South, from Pittsburg, one hundred and twenty heavy
guns, and from the Springfield and other arsenals more than a hundred thousand of the
best muskets the Government possessed. The attempt has been made to exonerate Floyd,
but the evidence of his deliberate treachery is to be found not only in the official report of
a Congressional committee, but in the boasts of Southern writers at the time.
Twiggy 's
surrender
PHOLDTHEHONOR
Street Banner in Charleston.
442
OPENING OF TIIK AVAR.
[CHAI-. XVII.
States in Texas, valued at about a million and a half of dollars. The
troops were permitted to retain their arms and march to the coast
unmolested, to embark for the North.
But the chief interest centred in the defences of Charleston harbor.
Fort Sum- Commanding the channel, stood Fort Sumter, on an artifi
cial island built up with large blocks of stone and chips
from Northern stone-yards. It was not yet finished, and the garrison
maintained at this point l occupied Fort Moultrie, on the northern
side of the harbor. This small force was under command of Lieuten
ant-colonel John L. Gardner, a veteran of the War of 1812, who in
Montgomery, Ala.
November was relieved by Major Robert Anderson, a Kentuckian.
In December the question of reenforcing Fort Moultrie was discussed
in the Cabinet, and the project was opposed by the President, who
carried his point. Thereupon Mr. Cass resigned the Secretaryship of
State, and Jeremiah S. Black, of Pennsylvania, succeeded him. The
fort, which had become somewhat dilapidated and was overlooked
by immense sand-heaps that had accumulated near it, was put into
better repair ; but it was evident that it could not be held with so
small a force — if at all — against any serious attempt to take it by
the thousands of armed men gathering at Charleston and clamoring
for the expulsion of every United States soldier.
1 Seveu officers, sixty-oue men, and thirteen musicians, of the First United States Artil
lery.
18C1.]
FORT SUMTER.
443
Left to his own resources by an Administration that was afraid to
withdraw him for fear of exasperating the North, and afraid to re-
enforce him for fear of precipitating war, Anderson determined to
leave an untenable work for one that at least promised safety. In the
night of December 26th, he secretly removed his command to Fort
Sumter, taking with him all his portable supplies, dismounting the
guns of Moultrie, and burning the carriages. On the same day,
three commissioners from South Carolina arrived in Washington, to
Evacuation of Fort Moultrie.
negotiate for the surrender of the forts and other public property.
By order of Secretary Floyd, a force of workmen had been previ
ously sent to Fort Sumter, to put it in repair, and mount the guns,
evidently to enhance its value for the insurgents when they should
have seized it. Many of these laborers were found wearing secession
cockades when the garrison landed, and angrily asked " What are
these soldiers doing here ? " They were driven into the fort, and
made prisoners. There was great excitement in Charleston next
morning, and that day a body of State troops took possession of Fort
444
OPENING OF THE WAR.
[CHAP. XVII.
Moultrie and of Castle Pinckney, a small round fort in the harbor,
near the city.
The removal of his force to Fort Sumter was in accordance with
the instructions sent to Major Anderson from Washington. It was
accepted by the insurgents at Charleston as a measure of hostility,
though the same orders which justified it also instructed Anderson to
refrain from all hostile acts unless compelled to resort to them in self-
defence. The Commissioners at Washington had telegraphed to Gov
ernor Pickens to hasten the preparations for war, and the insolence of
their tone, in their communica
tions with the President, w;is
enough to arouse even him to
take some vigorous step. The
sloop-of-war Brooklyn, then at
Fortress Monroe and ready for
sea, was ordered to Charleston
with three hundred men to re-
enforce Sumter. But delay
occurred for a day or two. in
deference to the courtesy which
the President thought due to
the South Cai'olina Commis
sioners, from whom he awaited
some further communications,
and then the order was counter
manded at the suggestion of
General Scott, who feared that
Fortress Monroe would be dan
gerously weakened by taking from it so large a portion of its garrison.
That this could have been avoided, however, and the Brooklyn sent
upon her errand, is certain. An offer was sent from New York to
provide an equal number of men from the military organizations of
that city, but the offer was rejected. In place of the Brooklyn, a side-
wheel merchant steamer, the Star of the West, was sent, laden with
provisions and recruits. On the 9th of January she entered Charles
ton harbor, and was repulsed by fire from the rebel batteries, against
which she was powerless, nor was a single shot fired in her defence
from Fort Sumter. No attempt had been made to conceal the object
of this expedition ; nor, indeed, would it have availed if there had
been, for the offices of the Government at Washington were filled
with Southerners who acted as spies.
The condition of the isolated fort, surrounded by watchful enemies,
remained unchanged for the remainder of the winter, except that it
Robert Anderson.
1861.]
FORT SUMTER.
445
was growing, day by day, less able to make any effectual resistance
by the rapid consumption of its provisions, while the rebels grew
stronger by the erection of new batteries, and the accumulation of
the munitions of Avar. A new commission of two, one from Major
Anderson and one from Governor Pickens, was sent, by agreement, to
Washington, but it only served to add one more influence to the gen
eral policy of indecision and delay. It was not, however, to be re
gretted ; the real danger was, that the rebellion would not be left to
be dealt with by the incoming
Administration, but would be
condoned by some disgraceful
and disastrous compromise.
On the 23d of February, Mr.
Lincoln arrived at Washington,
having escaped a concerted plot
for his assassination at Balti
more, by taking an earlier train
than that in which he was ex
pected to arrive. On the 4th
of March he was duly inaugu
rated, to confront a civil war
which Mr. Buchanan wanted
either the will or the nerve to
avert or to meet. With the
steadiness and deliberation
which characterized every step
he took from that moment till
the day of his death, the new
President waited a month before taking decisive action. On the 8th
of April he notified the Governor of South Carolina that the Gov
ernment had determined to provision Fort Sumter at all hazards.
General G. P. T. Beauregard — who had resigned a com- Thel)om.
mission in the United States army, to join in the rebellion bardnient-
— being now in command of the works erected for the destruction
of the fort, at once telegraphed to the government at Montgomery for
instructions, and on the 10th was ordered to open fire. He first sent
two of his staff to demand a surrender; this Major Anderson declined,
needlessly volunteering the information that he would soon be starved
out. That evening another messenger came, to ask what day he
would evacuate, if he were not attacked, and he answered, at noon
of the loth, unless he was previously relieved or received fresh in
structions.1 Before daylight on the morning of the 12th, Beauregard
1 As we had pork enough on hand to last for two weeks longer, there was no necessity
446
OPENING OF THE WAR.
[CHAP. XVII.
sent word to Anderson that in one hour he should open fire. The
first shot was fired from the Cummings Point battery, by an aged
secessionist, Edmund Ruffin, of the most rabid type, who had come
from Virginia to beg that privilege.1 It was answered by a gun liied
at that battery by Captain (afterward General) Abner Doubleday,
and the civil war was actually begun.
The bombardment continued, with little intermission, from day
light of the 12th till midday of the 13th, and was replied to as well
as the condition of the fort and its armament would admit. Nineteen
batteries rained shot and shells upon it, from every direction except
Scene of the First Bloodshed — Baltimore.
that of the open sea. The barracks and officers' quarters were set on
fire, and to prevent an explosion ninety barrels of gunpowder were
thrown overboard, and the magazine was closed. The ammunition
Theoapitu- being thus exhausted, and the fort filled with stifling smoke,
a capitulation necessarily followed, and the garrison marched
out next day, with the honors of war. In saluting the flag, one of
for fixing so early a day. It left too little margin for naval operations, a,s, in all probabil
ity, the vessels, in case of any accident or detention, would arrive too late to be of .service.
This proved to be the case. — Doubleday's HeminiscKncfs.
1 When the war was nearly over, and the result was easily foreseen, Kuffin hanged him
self, unwilling to survive the " lost cause " in which he believed with a devotion which, had
that cause possessed a single element of humanity or political virtue, would have been pa
thetic.
18til.] THE MOB IX BALTIMORE. 447
their number was killed by the premature discharge of a gun. The
fleet, outside the harbor, had witnessed the conflict, but Avere power
less to take part in it. All the buoys that marked the channels had
been removed, and the principal vessel was aground on a shoal.
On the 15th of April, two days later, the President called for
75,000 troops. The first to arrive in Washington were 600 The^t^n
Pennsylvanians, who were there on the 19th. On that day fortro°Ps-
— the anniversary of the fight at Lexington, at the beginning of the
Revolution — portions of the Sixth Massachusetts and Sev
enth Pennsylvania regiments, passing through Baltimore to the mob in
the defence of the national capital, were attacked by a vast
mob of insurgents, which had the sanction of many of the wealthier
and more respectable citizens. Two hundred Massachusetts men, be
coming separated from their regiment, were surrounded by a dense
throng of rioters, estimated to number nearly 10,000. The troops
marched slowly, headed by the Mayor and a detachment of police,
and exhibited admirable discipline in refraining from retaliation
when pelted with brick-bats and paving-stones and fired at with re
volvers ; the missiles coming not only from the crowd but from win
dows of the houses. At last, when three of their number had been
killed,1 and eight wounded, the troops fired into the mob, of whom
they killed seven and wounded an unknown number. One rioter was
killed by the Mayor, who had begged that the soldiers might not be
permitted to fire, but seeing, at length, the necessity of defence, seized
a musket and shot the most conspicuous leader of the assailants.
The indignation aroused by this outrage was intense all over the
country. The Seventh Regiment of New York, under Colonel Lef-
ferts, had already volunteered their services for one month, and were
under arms when the news from Baltimore reached the city. They
marched down Broadway amid the cheers of an immense multitude,
and embarked the next morning at Philadelphia for Annapolis.
There they joined General B. 'F. Butler, with the Eighth Regiment
of Massachusetts, who had also avoided Baltimore, at Perryville had
seized a steamboat, and reached Annapolis on the 21st. The com
bined force, under General Butler, took up the line of march for
Washington. A portion of the railroad track had been torn up, and
locomotives disabled, by the insurgents, but they were repaired with
little delay. The officers called for men who understood track-laying,
or bridge-building, or the construction and management of locomo
tives, and such men at once stepped out from the ranks of the Mas
sachusetts Eighth, many of whom were mechanics.
Events followed one another with startling rapidity. On the 3d
1 The names of the killed were Luther C. Ladd, Sumuer II. Needham, and Addison O.
Whitney.
OPENING OF TUP] WAR.
[CHAI-. XVII.
The second
oall for
troops.
of May, the President called for 42,000 volunteers for three years,
23,000 regulars, and 18,000 seamen. Virginia, Arkansas,
and North Carolina joined the Confederacy,1 and a large
number of Southern men who had been educated at the ex
pense of the United States Government, as officers for its army and
navy, resigned their commis
sions and u went with
their States." 2 The
rebels had counted
confidently up
on the support
of their politi
cal allies,
Departure of the Seventh Regiment from New York.
1 The dates at which the several States seceded, and the votes on the ordinance in conven
tion, were as follows. Most of the conventions refused to submit the question to the people ;
the only case in which any real opportunity was given for a popular vote, was that of
Texas. South Carolina, December 2, 1860, unanimous ; Mississippi. January 9, 18G1, 84
to 15; Alabama, January 11,61 to 39 ; Florida, January 11, 62 to 7; Georgia January
19, 208 to 89 ; Louisiana, January 26, 103 to 17 ; Texas, February 1, 16C to 7 ; Virginia,
April 17, 88 to 55 ; Arkansas, May 6, 69 to 1 ; North Carolina, May 20, unanimous.
- Out of nine hundred and tiTty-oiie army officers then in service, two hundred and
1861.]
THE BLOCKADE.
449
the Democratic party of the North ; and the tone of many Demo
cratic orators and presses had given them apparent reason for this
confidence. But when the crisis came, many of the most prominent
men in the party announced themselves in favor of maintaining the
integrity of the country by force of arms, and they and their follow
ers acted henceforth with the Republicans and were known as u War
Democrats." The party they abandoned preserved its name, its or
ganization, and its sympathies with slaveholders and rebels.
The Confederate capital was now removed from Montgomery to
Richmond, the first meeting of the Congress there being Pa.mentof
appointed for July 20th. It was not till the 14th of May >'°rthfn-
J debts for-
that mail service in the rebellious States, on the existing bidden-
United States contracts, was discontinued. But the lines were be
ing rapidly drawn. Southern
tradesmen refused to pay their
Northern debts, anticipating
the act of the rebel Congress
of May 21st requiring that
such debts should be paid into
the Confederate treasury. All
the ecclesiastical organizations,
the Masonic and other benevo
lent fraternities, and the Bible
and missionary societies, that
extended over the whole coun
try, snapped in twain on the
line between the free and the
slave States.
The President issued, on
the 19th of April, a proclama
tion declaring a blockade of Alexander H. Stephens.
the Southern coast, and all
kinds of vessels were bought by the Government to be used as gun
boats till others more suitable for such service could be
built. On the 21st a number of naval vessels were de
stroyed at the navy yard at Gosport, Virginia, to prevent their fall
ing into the hands of the rebels.
It is a remarkable proof of the peaceful character of the Southern
negro, that neither in the confusion of the beginning of hostilities, nor
in all the subsequent years, when opportunity was even greater, was
there the slightest attempt at the insurrection in mortal dread of
sixty-two went into the rebellion. A considerable number who had been educated at
West Point, but had left the service for other pursuits, also proved disloyal.
VOL. iv. 29
Blockade.
450 OPENING OF THE WAR. [CHAP. XVII.
which the South had always professed to be living. As the Northern
armies approached the border, man}'- of the slaves sought protection
and liberty within the Union lines, only to be given up by Union of
ficers, when their masters appeared and demanded their property, —
so imperative for a while was the habit of Northern subserviency.
Fortunately a wiser precedent was soon given for meeting such emer
gencies, by General Butler, then in command at Fortress Monroe.
Some fugitives and their claimant were brought before him, and he
decided that this species of property, like any other which could be of
use to the enemy, was contraband of war, and ordered them to be
fed and clothed and put to work upon his fortifications. Thereafter
the fugitives were universally called '- contrabands."
The rebel forces on the peninsula between York and James rivers
Fight at Bi" were under command of General J. B. Magruder. General
Butler, at Fortress Monroe, commanded the national volun
teers in the same territory, for whom he had established camps of in
struction at Newport News and near Hampton village. These being
annoyed by raids from Big Bethel, where Magruder had intrenched
himself with a considerable force, General Butler planned an expedi
tion against that place, which was but a dozen miles distant from
Fortress Monroe. It was placed under command of General Pierce,
and was to march by night, on the 9th of June, in two columns,
which were to unite at Little Bethel, rout any force that might be
there, and push on to Big Bethel, four miles farther, and capture the
place. The expedition was mismanaged from first to last. As por
tions of the two columns came in sight of each other at daybreak,
they opened fire, and did not discover their mistake till ten men had
fallen. No enemy was discovered at Little Bethel, and at Big Bethel
he was found so strongly intrenched, with a clear space in front and
a thick wood behind, that any attack was imprudent, unless some
way could be found to take him in flank. Nevertheless, a front at
tack was made with much spirit, but was repulsed. The Union loss
was fourteen killed, forty-nine wounded, and five missing. Among
the killed were Lieutenant John T. Greble, of the regular army, who
served a piece of artillery with great gallantry and effect, and Major
Theodore Winthrop, an aid of General Butler, who had volunteered
to go with the expedition, and was shot as he rushed forward and
put himself at the head of the men in a desperate charge on the left.
After the fight was over, the rebels fell back to Yorktown.
One of the first acts of General Hobert E. Lee, when placed in
War in west- command of the Virginia troops, was to send a force into
ernvirgima. western Virginia, under Colonel Porterfield, to obtain re
cruits and suppress secession from the Confederacy in that portion
l««i.] BATTLE OF BULL RUN. 451
of the State. General George B. McClellan, in command of the
Federal Department of the Ohio, who had hitherto remained on the
free-State side of the river, met this movement by promptly crossing
over with a considerable force in pursuit of the enemy. In a brief
campaign, the rebels lost about 250 killed, over 1,000 prisoners, and
live guns, while the Union loss was but 20 killed and 60 wounded.
These actions were small affairs, from a military point of view ; but
they had considerable importance in saving western Virginia to the
Union. The reputation they gave to General McClellan raised him
soon afterward to the chief command, in place of Scott.
Meanwhile the material for a considerable army had gathered at
Washington, and was in camp across the Potomac, where The Army of
the recruits were instructed and drilled under the eye of thePotonillc-
General Scott, with General Irvin McDowell in immediate com
mand.
Impatience at the long inaction of what seemed to be a powerful
army, at length broke forth in the cry of "• On to Richmond ! " and
preparations were made to attack the force which, under General
Beauregard, had taken up a position around Manassas Junction,
about thirty miles west by south from Washington. Harper's Ferry,
abandoned and burned by the national forces on the 18th of April,
was now evacuated in turn by the Confederate force, of patterson's
about 9,000 men, under General Joseph E. Johnston, who movemeilts-
in June retired toward Winchester, so as either to cooperate with
Beauregard or be able to unite their forces. General Robert Patter
son, who had been gathering a force at Chambersburg, mainly of
Pennsylvania troops, for the recapture of Harper's Ferry, now occu
pied that place. He afterward advanced to Martinsburg, and thence
to Bunker Hill. Here he was expected to hold Johnston in check,
though Johnston was nearer than he to the grand centre of operations.
The army under General McDowell, of about 30,000 men, contained
less than 1,000 regulars. The rest were volunteers, and most of them
three-months' men, whose term of service would soon expire. «0n to
Being assured by General Scott that Patterson, with his Richmond-"
18,000 men, would either hold Johnston in check or attack him, Mc
Dowell planned an advance movement. His plan was, in general
terms, to march to Fairfax Court House, there turn southward, and
crossing Occoquan Creek, place his army on Beauregard's line of com
munication.
The army broke camp in the afternoon of the 16th of July, and
marched in four divisions, under Generals Tyler, Hunter, Battieof
Heintzelman, and Miles, leaving one division to protect BullRun-
Washington. They moved in four columns, by nearly parallel roads,
OPENING OF THE AVAR.
[CHAP. XVJ1.
found Fairfax Court House abandoned, and next day readied Centre-
ville. Beauregard's army was in position on the line of Bull Run, -
a stream running in a channel sharply cut through red sandstone, —
occupying for about five miles the southern bank from Sudley Spring
to Union Mills, where the Orange and Alexandria Railroad crosses.
Within this distance are six or seven fords, and a stone bridge where
the Warren ton turnpike crosses. General McDowell found that his
plan of turning the enemy's right flank was not practicable, from the
nature of the ground. Two days were spent in reconnoitering. On
the 18th, Tyler's division had an engagement at Blackburn's Ford,
across the stream, each side losing half a hundred men. A new move
ment was planned, by which the divisions of Hunter and Heintzelman
were to move up stream, cross at Sudley Ford, and sweeping clown the
right bank, uncover the other crossings. The other divisions were
then to cross, and all together advance upon the enemy.
At three o'clock on Sunday morning, the 21st, the Union army was
in motion. Tyler's division took
the main road to the stone bridge.
Hunter and Heintzelman diverged
to the right, and crossed at Sud
ley Ford about nine o'clock.
Beau regard, ignorant of this move
ment, ordered an attack on the
Union left ; but his order miscar
ried. Colonel Evans, however,
holding the extreme left of the
rebel line, whose suspicions had
been aroused, marched up stream
with half a brigade, and confronted
the turning column beyond the
turnpike. Instead of deploying in
line of battle, and sweeping away
the obstruction at once, Hunter sent successive detached regiments and
brigades against it. Time was lost, during which Evans was heavily
reenforced, and took up a new position a little in the rear. Hunter
was also reenforced by Sherman and Reyes's brigades. The combined
-force steadily drove back the enemy to the plateau. They were in
great confusion, and Beauregard and Johnston,1 besides making per
sonal efforts to rally them, ordered up all their reserves, and formed
a new line of battle of six thousand five hundred men, with thirteen
guns and two companies of cavalry. McDowell attempted to work
1 This General was the ranking officer, and real commander, but had adopted Beaure
gard's plans.
McDowell.
BATTLE OF BULL RUN.
453
around the enemy's left, and ordered the batteries of Griffin and
Ricketts to take position on a ridge overlooking a height which formed
the strongest point of the rebel line. Gen. T. J. Jackson (afterward
known as " Stonewall " Jackson) sent a regiment to take this bat
tery, and the movement succeeded, the cannoneers supposing it to be
a New York regiment coming to their support. The guns were
speedily retaken, however, when fresh supports were brought up, and
the fight renewed around these batteries. But at this moment Gen
eral Early arrived by rail with 3,000 more of Johnston's troops,
and was ordered to fall upon the right flank of the Union army.
Early, assisted by a battery and five companies of cavalry,
obeyed with promptness and vigor, and this decided the bat
tle. About half-past four o'clock the right wing broke and retreated
The Retreat over Long Bridge.
in wild confusion, soon followed by the centre and left, though in less
disorder. The retreat soon became a panic; infantry, artillery, trains,
ambulances, members of Congress, and private citizens, who had come
out on horseback or in carriages to see the fight, were mingled in a
confused crowd upon the roads to Washington. No pursuit was made,
except by small bodies of cavalry, who took some prisoners. The reg
ulars, forming the left of the line, brought up the rear in good order,
while the reserves under Colonel Miles also preserved their organiza
tion and were ready to repel pursuit.
454 OPENING OF THE WAR. [CHAP. XVII.
The official report of Union losses by this battle is 2,952, which
included 1,460 missing, most of them being prisoners. General John
ston gives his losses as 1,897.
The first effect upon the North was consternation and humiliation ;
Kffeotofthe the second thought was a determination to raise larger ar
mies. On the day after the battle, General McClellan was
assigned to the Department of the Potomac. He assumed command
on the 20th of August, and set about reorganizing the defeated army ;
and when on the 1st of November General Scott, at his own request,
was retired from active service, McClellan succeeded him.
In October an affair hardly less discouraging than that of Bull Run,
The affair at occurred at Ball's Bluff, on the upper Potomac. General
muff. (jiiar}es p Stone, commanding a corps of observation, or
dered Colonels Devens and Lee, with the Fifteenth and Twentieth
Massachusetts Regiments, to cross the river — here divided by Harri
son Island — on the night of the 20th, and surprise a rebel camp said
to have been discovered in the direction of Leesburg. The crossing was
made in three scows, a life-boat, and two skiffs, all of which would
hold but 150 men at a time, and the force was nearly 700. No rebel
camp was found; but in the morning the troops were attacked by a
heavy force concealed in the woods, and driven back. In the forenoon
Colonel E. D. Baker, of California, crossed the river with a support
ing column of 1,900 men, and assumed command. But the enemy
was reenforced; Baker was killed, and at dusk his men were driven
back over the bluff. Three of the boats were sunk, and under an un
remitting fire the remnant of the Union forces straggled back in one
way and another to the Maryland shore. They had lost 1,000 men.
In the West the progress of events kept pace with those of the
East. The Governor of Missouri, Claiborne F. Jackson, said
The rebel
lion in Mis- in a letter to Judge Walker : "• I have been, from the begin-
Houri. . & . -,
mng, 111 favor of prompt action on the part of the Southern
States, but the majority of the people have differed from me." But
the will of the people had no influence upon his determination to
take the State out of the Union. On the 6th of May, the Police
Commissioners of St. Louis demanded of Captain Nathaniel Lyon,
commanding at the arsenal, that he remove the United States troops
from all other places in and about the city. Lyon — who was a na
tive of Connecticut, a West-Pointer, thoroughly loyal, and abundant
ly energetic — for answer, summoned the home guards, mostly Ger-
(•iipturp of a n™nsi to his aid, armed them, and marching out to the
i camp. ^^1 eamp surrounded it, demanded and received its sur
render within half an hour. Nearly 1,200 prisoners were disarmed
and taken to the arsenal. A mob that attacked the troops on their
1861.]
REBELLION IN MISSOURI.
455
return to the city was fired upon, and twenty-two persons were killed
or wounded. St. Louis was for two or three days in imminent danger
of destruction by a secession mob, who were especially bitter against
the German people. On the morning after the affair at Camp Jack
son, the bodies of four murdered Germans were found in the streets,
and two more were killed during the day. Lyon was made a briga
dier-general of volunteers and given command of all the national
forces in Missouri, relieving General William S. Harney.
Sterling Price, who had been made Major-general of the State forces,
was ordered to Booneville and Lexington, on the Missouri Fi(;ht at
River. Governor Jackson issued a proclamation, calling out Boonevllle
50,000 of the State militia to repel what he called an invasion of
Missouri by United States troops. Lyon organized an expedition
of about 2,000 men, found the enemy at Booneville, and dispersed
them. While lie was thus occupied on the Missouri, Col- $igel at Car.
onel Franz Sigel, with 1,100 men, encountered Generals thage-
Rains and Parsons, with a much larger force, on the 5th of July,
near Carthage, in the south
western part of the State. The
superiority of the enemy in
cavalry compelled Sigel to fall
back. But reaching a point
where the road ran between two
bluffs, he made a feint of mov
ing around them, drew the rebel
cavalry into the pass, and then
by a quick manoeuvre of his
guns poured into them a terri
bly destructive fire of canister.
After another sharp fight, he
gained the cover of the woods
north of Carthage, whence he
continued his march to Spring
field. In this action, which
gave General Sigel a national
reputation, the Union loss was but thirteen killed and thirty-one
wounded, all of whom were brought off. while the rebels lost nearly
200 killed or wounded, and 250 prisoners.
Lyon moved southward and joined Sigel near Springfield, confront
ing a large rebel force from Arkansas under General Ben
McCulloch, of about 20,000 men. The Union force was
about 5,000, but Lyon, after waiting in vain for expected
reinforcements, determined to attack rather than attempt a retreat,
Nathaniel Lyon
wiison'a
Creek
456 OPENING OF THE WAR. [CHAP. XVII.
which could hardly fail to be disastrous in the face of a force four
times his own. On the night of the 9th of August Sigel moved to
gain the right flank of the enemy and fall upon it at daylight.
Lyon, with 3,700 men and ten guns, gained the enemy's left, and
at five o'clock in the morning attacked it vigorously, continually
gaining ground and advancing his line against greatly superior num
bers. Sigel was also successful at first ; but his men fell to plun
dering the camps, when the enemy rallied and defeated him in turn,
capturing five of his guns and many men. Lyon was twice wounded
early in the action, and was afterward killed at the head of the
First Iowa Regiment, which was brought up to repel a
Death of f. n , TTT1 „, °
General movement on his tlank. "Who will lead us? said the
men, for their Colonel was absent. " I will lead you ! ( )n-
ward, brave boys of Iowa ! " answered Lyon, as he rode forward
waving his hat. He fell soon after with a bullet through his heart.
The enemy, despite his great superiority of numbers, was driven
from the field. But retreat of the national forces was also necessary,
and Major Sturgis, upon whom the command devolved, brought
them to Rolla in the course of a week.
John C. Fremont, who in May had been appointed a major-gen-
Fremont in erRl *n ^ne United States army, was assigned to the Western
Department, including Kentucky, Illinois, Missouri, and
Kansas, early in July. He reached St. Louis on the 2.")th of July
- four days after the battle of Bull Run — to find the rebels
hopeful and jubilant, the Unionists depressed, and guerilla bands
springing up all over the State. A large portion of the troops in
his department, being three-months' men, were on the eve of dis
banding, and discontented for want of pay. The remainder were
only partially armed and equipped. On the 1st of August, he had
in all about 23,000. 1 With these he was to hold St. Louis, Cairo,
Jefferson City, Iron ton, and Cape Girardeau, and to bring Missouri
into subjection. For, although the State Convention, reassembled
in July, had removed the rebel government, and appointed Ham
ilton R. Gamble Governor in place of Price, the rebel Congress
had recognized Missouri as one of the Confederate States. On
the 31st of August, Fremont issued a proclamation placing Mis
souri under martial law, prescribing the death-penalty for bridge-
burners and telegraph-cutters, and containing this clause,
IlisKmanci- . & . ?
pat ion rroc- which became tanious as the first emancipation proclama
tion in America : " The property, real and personal, of all
persons in the State of Missouri, who shall take up arms against the
United States, or who shall be directly proven to have taken active
1 By the 14th of September they had heeu increased to nearly fifty -six thousand.
1861.]
FREMONT IN MISSOURI.
457
part with their enemies in the field, is declared to be confiscated to
the public use; and their slaves, if any they have, are hereby de
clared free men.''
Two days after the proclamation was issued, the President wrote
a private letter to Fremont, taking exception to the two main points.
" Should yon shoot a man," wrote Mr. Lincoln, " according to the
proclamation, the Confederates would very certainly shoot our best
men in their hands in retaliation ; and so, man for man, indefinitely.
.... I think there is great danger that the closing paragraph, in
relation to the confiscation of property, and the liberating slaves of
traitorous owners, will alarm our Southern Union friends, and turn
them against us ; perhaps ruin our rather fair prospect for Ken
tucky. Allow me, therefore,
to ask that you will, as of your
own motion, modify that para
graph so as to conform to the
first and fourth sections of the
Act of Congress entitled, ' An
act to confiscate property used
for insurrectionary purposes,'
approved August 6, 1861."
This act confiscated only such
prope.rtv and slaves as were,
with the consent of the owner,
used in any hostile service to
the United States. Fremont
declined to change his procla
mation " as of his own mo
tion,'' and suggested that if it
was to be modified, the Pi'esi-
dent himself should do it open
ly, — which he did.
Meanwhile the General was doing his utmost to organize his de
partment, in the face of enormous difficulties and discouragements.
The defeat and death of General Lyon were charged to him, when
the fact was that, though lie had men enough in St. Louis to re-
enforce him, they were without arms. Lexington, on the Fallof
Missouri above Jefferson City, held by a small Union force Lexmi?K>»-
under Colonel James Mulligan, was besieged by a large rebel force
under Price, and after a gallant defence was compelled to surrender
on the 20th of September. Fremont was informed on the 13th of
the state of affairs at Lexington ; but was powerless to prevent its
fall. On the 14th orders came from Washington to send 5,000 of
John C. Fremont.
458 OPENING OF THE WAR. [CHAI>. XVJI.
his troops to that city immediately. On the 16th. moreover, Gen
eral John Pope telegraphed from Palmyra, that he had sent reen-
forcements of 4,000 men to Mulligan, — which, however, did not
reach him. At the same time, General Grant at Cairo and General
Anderson in Kentucky were begging reinforcements of Fremont,
their immediate superior. But the fall of Lexington added to the
clamor which had been raised against him, especially by the Demo
cratic press, on the issuing of his proclamation.
This was so far heeded at Washington that Secretary Cameron
was sent on a visit to Fremont, carrying an order for his removal,
with discretion to present it or not. He found the General at Tip-
ton, October 13, preparing to pursue Price, and did not present the
order, but carried back a gloomy account of the state of affairs. A
week later, Fremont led his army across the Osage, which had first
to be bridged, and was struggling, against the effect of the autumn
rains, to concentrate all his forces for driving Price into and out of
southwestern Missouri. Several of his detachments, unincumbered,
pushed forward and fell upon small portions of the enemy with suc
cess. The most brilliant affair was that of Major Zagonyi, who with
only 300 cavalrymen attacked 2,000 rebels at Springfield. As they
rode, sabre in hand, seventy of his men fell before they could reach
the enemy. The remainder dashed into a body of 400 rebel cav
alry, cut down many, and scattered the remainder. They then at
tacked the infantry in the face of a heavy fire, and routed it also.
Ashboth's division reached Fremont on the 30th, and Pope's —
marching seventy miles in two days — joined him on the 1st of
November. He was reenforced about the same time by Hunter and
McKinstry, and at length had made such disposition of his troops
that Price and Jackson were so completely out-generaled that they
must inevitably have been driven from the State or fallen into his
hands as prisoners. At this critical moment, and on the eve of what
could have hardly failed of being a decisive victory, he was relieved
from command, and General Hunter appointed to succeed him.
On the 2<>th of August a small expedition left Fortress Monroe,
The Hat aiu^ *n ^wo clays arrived at Hatteras Inlet, the principal en-
torasex- trance to Pamlico Sound. Here earthworks had been thrown
pedition.
up mounting fifteen guns. The expedition — five war-ves
sels, two transports, and a tug, with 800 soldiers — was commanded
by General Butler and Commander Silas H. Stringham. Fire was
opened at once on the works, principally with shells, and after a
bombardment of two days the enemy surrendered. Their loss was
thirty or forty men killed or wounded, and 700 prisoners. Blockade-
runners had already begun to swarm along the coast, and this inlet
1861.] NAVAL EXPEDITIONS. 459
was one of the most convenient approaches. The secret of the expe
dition had been so well kept that for several days these vessels contin
ued to come in, and of course fell into the hands of the Federals.
But of the several grand expeditions by which some of the best
ports of the Confederacy were to be permanently closed,
and footholds obtained for expeditions into its interior, the R°.v»! Ex-
first sailed from Hampton Roads, with sealed orders, on the
29th of October. It consisted of a heavy frigate, the Wabash, four
teen gunboats, thirty-four steam transports, and twenty-six sailing
vessels. As the United States scarcely had a navy when the war
broke out, most of these vessels were taken from the merchant ma
rine, including some of the largest and swiftest, among which were
the Great Republic and the Vanderbilt. Altogether there were
about 10,000 troops, and, including the crews, about 22,000 men in
all. The ships were commanded by Commander Samuel F. Dupont,
the troops by General Thomas W. Sherman. In a storm off Cape
Hatteras four transports were lost, and two vessels, rendered useless
by throwing their armament overboard, put back to Fortress Monroe.
When it cleared, but a single sail could be seen from the deck of
the flag-ship ; but the scattered craft came up one by one, and three
war-ships left blockading stations to join the fleet, till all had gath
ered at the rendezvous off Port Royal, South Carolina. The entrance
to this harbor, two and a half miles wide, was commanded by heavy
earthworks — Fort Walker on Hilton Head, the southern shore, and
Fort Beauregard on the northern. The channel buoys had been re
moved, but soundings were made, and new buoys placed, under fire
from the rebel fleet of five small steamers, under Josiah Tatnall, a
former officer of the United States navy. The attack was made on
the 7th, by the naval force alone. The gunboats ran into the harbor,
holding Tatnall in check, while the larger war-ships, sailing round
and round in an ellipse between the two forts, for four hours poured
in an incessant fire till the guns of both forts were silenced, and the
garrisons compelled to abandon them, leaving their flag flying. The
loss of the fleet was only eight men killed and twenty-three wounded.
The rebel loss is unknown. Not only were the forts abandoned, but
every white inhabitant fled from Beaufort.
The act of a naval officer came near, a few days afterward, to cre
ating a serious complication in the relations of the United The affair of
States with England. James M. Mason and John Slidell "« Trent.
— both of whom had left the United States Senate, to join in the
rebellion — being appointed Commissioners to the courts of London
and Paris, escaped on a blockade-runner from Charleston harbor, and
reached Havana, whence they took passage for England on the Brit-
400 OPENING OF THE WAR. [CHAP. XVII.
ish mail steamer Trent. Captain Charles Wilkes, in the United
States steamship San Jacinto, watching for this vessel, overhauled
her on the 8th of November in the Bahama Channel, took off the
rebel Commissioners and their secretaries, and then allowed the Trent
to proceed on her voyage. By the law of nations, and in accordance
with the British proclamation of neutrality,1 he might have brought
the Trent into port as a prize. His reason for not doing so was, that
he could hardly spare men for a prize crew, and he especially desired
not to inflict injury upon innocent persons by delaying the mails and
the passengers. On receipt of the news in Liverpool, a meeting was
called at the Cotton Exchange, where the most violent harangues
were loudly applauded, and two speakers who counselled moderation
could scarcely get a hearing. The excitement spread to all classes,
and the feeling was general in England, that there must be an im
mediate release of the prisoners, and an apology for this interference
with an English ship on the high seas, or a declaration of war.
Secretary Seward instructed Mr. Charles Francis Adams, the Amer
ican Minister in London, to assure the British Government that in
the capture of the Commissioners Captain Wilkes had acted without
any instructions, and that the American Government would be ready
to discuss the matter in a friendly spirit when the ground taken by
the British Government should be made known. The official com
munication of Earl Russell, under date of November 80th, after re
citing the statement of the Captain of the Trent, — in which the
fact that the men seized were known to him and to everybody else
to be rebel emissaries, was suppressed, — proceeded to say, " It thus
appears that certain individuals have been forcibly taken from on
board a British vessel, the ship of a neutral power, while such ves
sel was pursuing a lawful and innocent voyage, an act of violence
which was an affront to the British flag and a violation of interna
tional law," after which it demanded "such redress as alone could
satisfy the British nation," namely, the liberation of the prison
ers, and a suitable apology. At the same time England began na
val preparations for war, and ordered troops to Canada.2
1 The Queen's proclamation, dated May 13th, 1861, warned her subjects that "if any of
them shall presume to do any aets in derogation of their duty as subjects of a neutral sov
ereign, or in violation or contravention of the law of nations, as .... by carrying officers,
soldiers, despatches, arms, military stores, or materials, or any article or articles considered
and deemed to be contraband of war, according to the law or modern nsnge of nations, for
the use or service of either of the contending parties, all persons so offending will incur
and be liable to the several penalties, etc And all our subjects who may misconduct
themselves in the premises, will do so at their peril and of their own wrong, and they will
in no wise obtain any protection from us against any liability or penal consequences."
- It is a ludicrous fact that the transports bringing these troops found the ports of Can
ada frozen up, and the British Government was under the humiliating necessity of asking
1861.]
THE TRENT AFFAIR.
461
Mr. Seward's answer, dated December 26th, discussed the subject
at considerable length, in all its bearings, arguing : First, that the
persons named and their despatches were contraband of war ; Sec
ond, that Captain Wilkes might lawfully stop and search the Trent
for them ; Third, that he exercised the right in a lawful and proper
manner ; Fourth, that he had
a right to capture the Commis
sioners ; but, Fifth, that he did
not exercise that right in the
manner allowed and recognized
by the law of nations, because
he decided for himself the ques
tion whether the prisoners were
contraband, and voluntarily re
leased the vessel, instead of
bringing both vessel and prison
ers to port for adjudication in a
prize court. On this ground
he ordered the release of the
prisoners, who had been con
fined in Fort Warren, Boston
harbor, and they were at once
transferred to a British war
vessel which was waiting for
them at Provincetown.
If the American people felt
a momentary chagrin at the surrender of the rebel Commissioners,
they could not fail to see that Secretary Seward had skilfully averted
what could have hardly failed to be, in the condition of the country
at that moment, a disastrous foreign war. Calmer second thought
suggested that England could have hardly permitted such an act as
that of Captain Wilkes to pass unchallenged. But the sympathy of
the more influential part of her people for the slaveholders' rebellion
had been so loudly and so offensively avowed, that this incident gave
intensity to a resentment already deep and keen. The result of
the affair, however, was a bitter disappointment to the secessionists,
who had hoped for a war between England and the United States,
to lead to an alliance between England and the Confederacy.
permission of the American Government to land at Portland and convey across American
territory the very troops with which it was preparing to make war on the American people.
The permission was graciously granted.
CHAPTER XVIII.
THE PENINSULAR CAMPAIGN.
EXPEDITION TO NORTH CAROLINA. — THE " MONITOR " AND " MEKRIMAC." — BOMBARD
MENT OF FORT PULASKI. — GENERAL HUNTER IN SOUTH CAROLINA. — MOVEMENT TO
THE PENINSULA. — THE SIEGE OF YORKTOWN. — BATTLE OF WILLIAMSBURG. — Tin:
CHICKAHOMINY. — JACKSON ON THE SHENANDOAH. — BATTLE OF HANOVER COURT
HOUSE. — BATTLE OF SEVEN PINES. — BATTLE OF FAIR OAKS. — LEE IN COMMAND
OF THE CONFEDERATES. — BRIDGE-BUILDING. — STUART'S RAID. — THE SEVEN DAYS.
— BATTLE OF BEAVER DAM CREEK. — BATTLE OF COLD HARBOR. — THE CHANGE
OF BASE. — SAVAGE'S STATION. — LEE'S STRATEGY. — BATTLE OF FRAZIER'S FARM. —
BATTLE OF MALVERN HILL. — THE FLIGHT TO HARRISON'S LANDING. — WITHDRAWAL
FROM THE PENINSULA.
ON the 12th of January, 1862, a fleet of fifteen gunboats, eight pro-
KoanokoEx- pellers, and fifty-seven transports, commanded by Com in o-
peuuion. dore Louis M. Goldsborough, left Fortress Monroe under
sealed orders. On the transports were about 11,000 troops, under
General Ambrose E. Burnside, divided into three brigades, com
manded respectively by Brigadier-generals John G. Foster, Jesse L.
Reno, and John G. Parke. Oil Roanoke Island were three heavy
earthworks, mounting altogether twenty-four guns, behind which
were about 3,000 men. To reduce these was the preliminary work
of the expedition, and that was done early in February. On the
12th of March the fleet ascended the Neuse River, and the next
morning landed the troops on the west bank seventeen miles below
the city of Newbern. A well-constructed breastwork stretched from
Battle of the river to a swamp ; batteries were placed along the bank,
''bL'rn' and the stream was filled with formidable obstructions.
All day the troops were moving slowly up toward the city, by roads
heavy with long rains, while the gunboats, commanded by Rowan,
preceded them, silencing the batteries and removing the obstructions
in the river. The real battle was fought at the breastwork, three
miles below the city, on Sunday, the 14th. This was well provided
with artillery, and behind it were about 8,000 men. The assault in
front was determined but not successful, though a few guns were tem
porarily captured ; but when the Union left wing had flanked it at
1862.]
EXPEDITION TO NORTH CAROLINA.
463
the weakest point, and swept down the line, taking everything in
reverse, while a little later the right wing burst upon the rebel left,
the defenders took to flight, availing themselves of a train of cars
to hasten their escape to the city. To prevent pursuit, they set fire
prematurely to the railway bridge over the Trent, and those who
were left behind became prisoners. The Union troops, crossing the
river in the gunboats, followed to the town, and pushed the enemy
to still further flight ; but not till they had kindled a fire which de
stroyed lai-ge quantities of cotton, turpentine, and military stores, the
court-house, a hotel, and some private residences. The Union loss in
this battle, killed
and wounded, j"
was over 500.
The city was per
manently occu
pied, and Gene
ral Foster was
made military
governor. On
the 20th of
March, Burnside,
with P a r k e ' s
brigade, marched
into Beaufort. A
small detach
ment was sent
at the same time
to occupy Wash
ington, on Tar
River, where the
inhabitants were
for the most part
still loyal to the
Union. Fort
Macon, which commanded the entrance to the harbor of Beaufort, was
taken on the 25th of April. The faithfulness of many of the Redupti0nof
people of North Carolina to the National Government was Fort Macon-
shown in a picturesque incident at the surrender of the fort. When
the rebel flag was struck, and the national standard took its An incident
place, an old man, with a long white beard, leaped upon the o£ the flag-
ruined rampart, with a silver bugle in his hand, and blew the notes
of the " Star-Spangled Banner." 1
When the Gosport Navy Yard was destroyed the year before,
464 THE PENINSULAR CAMPAIGN. [CHAP. XVIII.
among the ships set on fire was the frigate Merrimac. But as she
was also scuttled, she sank before the fire had damaged
mac and more than her upper works. This ship the rebels raised
and repaired, covering her with a sloping roof, plating her
with railroad iron, and giving her an iron prow. This formidable
vessel, re-named the Virginia — though the name would not stick to
her — was ready for action in March, her first appointed task being
to clear Hampton Roads of the Federal fleet.
The vague and often contradictory reports which reached the North
concerning the plan and progress of this vessel, created serious appre
hension, and probably hastened the Government in its movements for
the construction of armored war-ships. One made by John Ericsson,
was a novelty in naval architecture. The deck of this vessel — whose
length was one hundred and sixty-six feet, with a beam of forty-two
feet — was almost even with the water's edge, but surmounted amid
ships by a revolving turret carrying two eleven-inch Dahlgren guns.1
About notm on the 8th of March the Merrimac — or Virginia —
with three gunboats, came out of Gosport to attack the shipping in
Hampton Roads. The principal vessels there were the steam frigates
Minnesota and Roanoke, and the sailing frigates Congress, Cumber
land, and St. Lawrence. The Minnesota and Roanoke went up to
meet the Merrimac, the Minnesota intending to run her down ; but
both got aground. The Merrimac made straight for the
of the con- Congress and Cumberland, near Newport News. Passing
cumber- the Congress — receiving a harmless broadside, and return
ing it with one or two telling shots — she approached the
Cumberland swung across the channel. The frigate fired six broad
sides, at close range, but the balls from her nine-inch guns fell as
harmlessly as hail upon the sloping iron roof which covered the Mer
rimac s decks. Coming on with full speed, the iron prow of the ram
crushed through the Cumberland's bow below the water-line, while
her unprotected decks were swept by a terrible fire. The leak in
her bow was irreparable, and in three quarters of an hour the frigate
sank in fifty-four feet of water, carrying down all the sick and
wounded. Of the remainder, some swam ashore, and some were
picked up by small boats. Of a crew of 376 men, 121 lost their lives.
The Congress, which by this time was aground, was next attacked.
After losing her commander and about a hundred men, and being set
on fire, she surrendered, and soon blew up. The iron-clad, because
of her heavy draft, could not approach within a mile of the Minne-
1 Victor's History of the Southern Rebellion.
2 The revolving turret was the invention of Theodore R. Timby, of Dutohess County,
N. Y., who had filed a caveat and exhibited an iron model as early as 1843.
1862.]
THE MONITOR AND MERRIMAC.
465
sota ; but the rebel gunboats took a nearer position and maintained
a sharp fight, till the boiler of one of them was exploded by a shot.
The Roanoke and St. Lawrence escaped. The iron-clad had lost
only two men killed and eight wounded. In the morning she again
came out and was met by the Monitor — as Ericsson's tur-
J The Monitor
reted iron-clad vessel was called — which had arrived dur- an|i Mem-
mac.
ing the night from New York. Over her low decks the
shot of the Merrimac passed, but a few struck squarely against the
turret and the pilot-house. The latter was built of solid wrought-
iron beams, and a shot broke one of these and threw some particles
Interior of the Monitor.
of cement into the eyes of Lieutenant John L. Worden, so blinding
him that he was compelled to give the command to his next officer.
The Monitor, being of lighter draft than her antagonist — she was only
about one fifth as large — steamed round and round her as she lay
aground, firing at close range. They soon parted, the Merrimac
steaming up the bay to her anchorage at Craney Island, the Monitor
down the bay to Fortress Monroe. These were the first and last
exploits of a ship whose seemingly formidable character excited, for
the moment, the gravest apprehensions in Northern ports.
While these events were taking place in Hampton Roads, General
Quincy A. Gillmore had been ordered to reconnoitre Fort Pulaski,
30
466
THE PENINSULAR CAMPAIGN.
[CHAP. XVIII.
which commanded the channels at the mouth of the Savannah. The
Reduction of walls of the fort were twenty feet high and seven feet
• thick, mounting forty heavy guns, and defended by nearly
400 men. The General reported that it could be reduced by batteries
on Big Tybee Island and Venus Point, and received orders to carry
out his plan. A portion of February and the whole of March were
spent in the erection of the works and placing the guns, which, from
the softness of the ground, could only be accomplished with enormous
labor, and from the nearness to the fort could only be done at night.
Thirty-six rifled guns and heavy mortars were at length in position,
some of them having been
dragged for miles, on movable
platforms, over deep morass, re
quiring 250 men to move them.
The distance of the batteries
from the fort was from less than
a mile to two miles. On the
10th of April fire was opened.
The rifled guns made enormous
breaches in the walls, and soon
reduced them to ruins. In the
afternoon of the llth, the fort
was surrendered. Ten guns
had been dismounted, one of
the garrison killed and a few
wounded. The assailants lost
one man killed.
David Hunter. Major-general David Hunter,
who on the last day of March
had been placed in command on the South Carolina and Georgia
coast, issued a general order on the 9th of May, wherein he
Hunter's J
emanc-ipa- said, " Slavery and martial law in a free country are incom-
tion order. " _, .
patible. The persons m these States — Georgia, 1< londa,
and South Carolina — heretofore held as slaves, are therefore declared
forever free." Ten days later the President issued a proclamation an
nulling Hunter's, and adding : " I further make known that, whether
it be competent for me, as commander-in-chief of the army and navy,
to declare the slaves of any State or States free ; and whether at any
time, or in any case, it shall have become a necessity indispensable to
the maintenance of the government to exercise such supposed powder,
are questions which, under my responsibility, I reserve to myself, and
which I cannot feel justified in leaving to the decision of command
ers in the field."
1862.] GENERAL HUNTER IN SOUTH CAROLINA. 467
In May, General Hunter organized an expedition against Charles
ton. More than 3,000 men were landed on James Island,
. • -i i • • Movement
and, in an unsuccessful assault on the enemy's position at against
o '-ill • i i *•/» Charleston.
becessionville about a sixth ot them were sacrificed.
A much more important movement by General Hunter was the
organization of the First South Carolina Volunteers, a regi
ment of black troops, the first in the service. A represen- me«t of ue-
tative from Kentucky introduced in Congress a resolution
asking for information on this subject. The Secretary of War re
ferred the resolution to Hunter himself, who returned a clear and
conclusive answer.1 Jefferson Davis thereupon issued a proclamation
declaring General Hunter an outlaw, who, if captured, was not to be
treated as a prisoner of war, but as a felon. The appointment of
General Rufus Saxton as superintendent of plantations in the sea-isl
and district, put it out of Hunter's power to extend very largely the
enlistment of colored troops.
Early in March, 1862, it seemed that the inactivity of the Army
of the Potomac was to come to an end. The Confederates
The Army
loresaw tins, and bewail to move away from the positions of the Poto
mac,
whence they had threatened the national capital. By the
i'th it was known that they were leaving Centreville and Manas-
sas. On the next day McClellan started in that direction. He
thought it, he said, a good opportunity for his men to learn some
thing of marching, and he took care not to move while there was any
danger of that exercise being interrupted. The infantry halted at
Centreville, but McClellan rode on to Manassas, and a body of cav
alry was pushed a few miles farther. They found that the Confed
erates were falling back rapidly, but in good order.
At Fairfax Court House McClellan and his four corps-command
ers — Simmer, McDowell, Heintzelman, and Keyes — agreed upon a
plan of operations ; and on the 18th the President put forth an order
directing the mode of its execution : " First, leave such a force at
Manassas Junction as shall make it entirely certain that the enemy
shall not repossess himself of that position and line of communica
tion. Second, leave Washington entirely secure. Third, move the
remainder of the force down the Potomac, choosing a new base at
Fortress Monroe, or anywhere between here and there; or, at all
1 He said, among other things, "No regiment of fugitive slaves has been or is being or
ganized in this department. There is, however, a fine regiment of persons whose late
masters are fugitive rebels — men who everywhere fly before the appearanee of the na
tional Hag, leaving their servants behind them to shift as best they can for themselves.
.... In the absence of any fugitive-master law, the deserted slaves would be wholly with
out remedy, had not their crime of treason given the slaves the right to pursue, capture,
and bring back these persons of whose protection they have been so suddenly bereft."
468
THE PENINSULAR CAMPAIGN.
[CHAP. XVIII.
events, move such remainder of the army at once in pursuit of the
enemy, by some route."
On the 14th, McClellan issued an address to the army, in which
he said that the period of inaction had passed, and that he was now
about to lead to the battlefield " a real army, magnificent in mate
rial, admirable in discipline and instruction, excellently equipped and
armed." It was intelligence which the country, discouraged by the
long delay, amused for so many months by the assurance that " all is
quiet along the Potomac," heard with gladness. There would have
been less satisfaction had it been then known that the direction of
the proposed movement was against the wishes and the judgment
of the President and the Secretary of War, Edwin M. Stanton, who
had succeeded to that office in
January, in place of Simon Cam
eron. The President's plan was
" to move directly to a point on
the railroad southwest of Manas-
sas," as involving less expendi
ture of time and money, as more
likely to break the enemy's line
of communication, and lead to
success, and as insuring an easier
line of retreat in case of disaster.
In deference, however, to Gen
eral McClellan, who insisted up
on moving upon Richmond by
going down the Chesapeake, Mr.
Lincoln had ordered, about the
middle of February, a council of
war, determined to abide by its
decision. At this council the two plans were carefully discussed, and
although the older Generals — the wiser and the better soldiers —
agreed with the President and the Secretary of War, the younger
men agreed with their commanding General. It was a majority of
numbers against weight of judgment; and Mr. Lincoln, unfortu
nately, permitted himself to be governed by the popular rule of de
cision by mere numbers.
McClellan's general plan was to capture Yorktown, where the reb-
sieKe of elg na(l thrown up strong works, held by men under Gen-
Yorktown. eml jvj.1gru(ier . thus to open the York River, as West
Point was to be the base of supply for his army in its march toward
Richmond ; for the more direct route, by way of the James, was
thought to be barred by the Merrimac. Had he ascertained how
George B. McClellan.
1862.]
SIEGE OF YOKKTOWX.
469
weak was the force in his front, he might easily have marched up the
Peninsula without even touching Yorktown. He did indeed make a
feeble movement in this direction ; but vastly over-estimating the
enemy, he determined to lay regular siege to Yorktown. This cost a
month. Herein lay the initial error in the campaign. Richmond
was at this time, and for four weeks and more afterward, utterly
without defence.
Much was to be done before the siege could even be begun.
Leagues of road were to be made through forest and swamp. Miles
of trenches were to be dug, redoubts raised, and batteries constructed.
All this time the army suffered more severely in health and condition
than it would have done in confronting the enemy in the field. But at
length on the 3d of May the engineering work was considered as fin-
The forces.
ished. Three days more were to be devoted to final arrangements,
and on the 6th fire was to be opened from every battery.
In the mean time, however, Johnston had sent down the force
from Manassas, arriving himself on the 17th of April. He
brought with him 35,000 men, raising the Confederate force
to 53,000. McClellan's information was again at fault. Ten days
before Johnston's arrival, he telegraphed to Washington : " Johnston
arrived at Yorktown yesterday with strong reinforcements. It seems
clear that I shall have on my hands the whole force of the enemy —
not less than 100,000 men, possibly more. When my present com
mand all joins me, I shall have about 85,000. With this army I
could assault the enemy's works, and perhaps carry them ; but were
I in possession of their intrenchments, and assaulted by doable my
numbers, I should not fear the result." The President replied :
470
THE PENINSULAR CAMPAIGN.
[CHAP. XVIII.
" When I telegraphed to you on the 6th, that you had more than
100,000 men, I had just obtained a statement, taken from your own
returns, making 108,000 with those going or on the way. < You say
that you have but 85,000. Where are the other 23,000 ?" A month
before he had written, " There is a curious mystery about the num
ber of troops now with you." It continued for some weeks longer.
Johnston had no idea of holding Yorktown. On the afternoon of
May 3d, a desultory but harmless fire was opened upon the
Evacuation .
of York- advanced works of the Union army, lasting until midnight.
( )n the morning of the 4th, it was reported from the front
that there was a great fire in the town. Heintzelman went up in
a balloon, from which he could overlook the Confederate lines.
Their camp-fires \vere nearly all out, and the guns at Yorktown were
gone. Johnston with his whole force had retired, taking with him
everything worth carrying away. McClellan telegraphed jubilantly
to Washington : " We have the
ramparts; have guns, ammunition,
camp equipage. We hold the en
tire lines of the enemy's works. I
have thrown all my cavalry and
horse-artillery in pursuit. No time
shall be lost. I shall push the
enemy to the wall."
The Confederates had a good
start, and before the retreat was
fairly known, their trains and artil
lery were well on the way to Rich
mond. Stoneman's cavalry fol
lowed them, and a little after noon
came in view of some works near
Williamsburg. They halted for
the infantry to come up. Meanwhile Hooker, of Heintzelman's
corps, had set out in pursuit, through a heavy rain, which made the
march slow and difficult ; but he pressed on until midnight, and then
halted for rest. An hour after daybreak the next morning they
were in front of Fort Magruder, into which the Confederates were
driven. Hooker sent back word that he had the enemy in a vise, and
could hold him there until more men should come up. But there
was no actual commanding officer at Yorktown. McClellan was doing
quartermaster's duty in directing the movements of Franklin's corps,
which had just arrived by water. Heintzelman had been put in
charge of the movements in front; but in the evening Sumner came
up, and although he brought no troops witli him, he took the com
mand by right of seniority.
George Stoneman.
1802.]
BATTLE OF WILLTAMSBURG.
471
The works near Williamsburg had been lightly held ; but Long-
street, who commanded the rear of the Confederate retreat,
saw that the pursuit must be held in check until the trains wuiiams-
and artillery were beyond reach. He turned back, and on
the morning of the 4th took the defensive. He was hotly assailed
by Hooker, with inferior numbers, hoping every hour to be ree'n-
forced. Sumner, misunderstanding the position, sent Hancock in
another direction, where he gained a decided advantage over the
enemy. Hooker kept up the fight from daybreak until late in the
afternoon, when his ammunition began to fail. At this moment
Kearny came up. For six hours he had been struggling along a
single miry road. He outranked Hooker, who gladly yielded the
command to him. Kearny's op
portune arrival turned the waver
ing balance. The Confederates,
having gained their points, aban
doned the field. Late in the day
McClellan came up, and " pushed
the enemy to the wall," by orders
that the pursuit should not be re
sumed in the morning, as he had
other arrangements in mind. The
cavalry picked up a few stragglers,
and four or five guns, which had
stuck fast in the mud. The Fed
eral loss in the battle was 456
killed, 1,400 wounded, and 335
missing, of whom more than two
thirds were from Hooker's divis
ion. Johnston puts the Confederate loss at " about 1,800." Prob
ably this is too low, for a large number of wounded were found in
and near Williamsburg, and he gives his entire loss, from sickness
and casualties, between Yorktown and Richmond, at about 6,000.
The Confederate army moved rapidly toward Richmond, about
fifty miles distant. The march of the LTnion army was very P.mic in
slow ; beginning on the 8th of May, the advance did not Richmond-
reach the Chickahominy until the 20th. During this month stirring
events had occurred. New Orleans had been captured by Farragut,
Norfolk had been surrendered, and the Merrimac, " the iron diadem of
the South, worth 50,000 men," had been blown up. From the mo
ment when it was known that the Federal army had landed on the
Peninsula, dismay had reigned at Richmond. The Confederate Con
gress adjourned on the 21st of April, and the government archives
Samuel P. Heintze'man.
472
THE PENINSULAR CAMPAIGN.
[CnAi>. XVIII.
were packed up for transportation to South Carolina. All places of
business were ordered to be closed at two o'clock in the afternoon,
and all able-bodied men were ordered to drill for four hours daily.
But the condition of Richmond was not so desperate as it seemed.
In three or four days Johnston arrived from Yorktown, bringing
with him 47,000 men. The
Merrimac had been blown up
on the llth of May ; but the
Federal gunboats, among which
Panic at Richmond.
was the Monitor, in attempting to ascend the James, were checked at
Fort Darling, eight miles below the city, and could go no farther,
linger had come up from Norfolk with 7,000 men, and Branch and
Anderson were coming down from the Rappahannock with 13,000
more. So that when, near the end of May, McClellan reached the
Chickahominy with about 135,000 men, the Confederate force at
The chick- Richmond numbered 67,000. The real defence of Richmond
at this time was the Chickahominy, which rises in swampy
uplands northwest of Richmond, flowing southward for fifty miles,
parallel with and nearly midway between the James and the York.
Below Richmond its course from six to ten miles is little more than a
186-2.] THE CHICK AIIOMIXY. 473
brook. In dry summer seasons the channel is only a few yards broad,
and hardly four feet deep ; but a continuous rain-fall, or a sudden
shower, floods the swamp and bottom-land. This season had been an
unusually wet one; the low lands were flooded, so as to be impassable
for cavalry or artillery, though infantry, if unopposed, might have
picked their way across at one point or another. Thus the narrow
Chickahominy, with its bordering swamps, was more formidable as
a military obstacle than a broad river would have been, over which
pontoon bridges could be thrown. McClellan's army had now been
organized into five corps: the old ones of Sumner, Heintzel- The White
mail, and Keyes ; a new one under Fitz John Porter ; and IIouse-
Franklin's, which had arrived on the day of the Confederate aban
donment of Yorktown. Its base of supply was for the present estab
lished at West Point, or rather at the White House, five miles up the
Pamunkey.1
On the 20th of May the advance of the Federal army reached the
Chickahominy at Bottom's Bridge, which had been partly Mccieiian's
destroyed, but the abutments remained, and in a few days t)OSItlous-
the bridge was restored. Keyes's corps, and a part of that of Heint-
zelman, 30,000 men in all, were sent over, and their advanced posts
on the west side were within half a dozen miles of Richmond. They
met with no opposition, for Johnston's force was some miles farther
up, watching points which it was expected would be attacked. As
McClellan's other divisions came up, they were posted for a distance
of some fifteen miles along the east side of the Chickahominy. The
army was thus practically divided into two parts. Between them lay
the Chickahominy, with its flooded swamps. The entire position was
in shape somewhat like the letter V, only the right arm was two or
three times longer than the other. This was a grave military error,
which is nowhere better set forth than by McClellan himself, not
long after. He says: "The only available means of uniting our
forces at Fair Oaks for an advance upon Richmond was to march the
troops from points on the left bank of the Chickahominy down to
Bottom's Bridge, and thence over the Williamsburg road to a posi
tion near Fair Oaks, a distance of about twenty-three miles. In the
condition of the roads at that time this march could not be made with
artillery in less than two days."
McClellan had all along urged that McDowell's corps should be
1 This White House stood upon the site of the residence of the widowed Martha Parke
Custis who became the wife of Washington. It and Arlington House, on the Potomac,
were inherited by G. W. P. Custis, her son by her first husband. His daughter was now
the wife of General K. E. Lee, and the White House was the usual residence of the Lee
family. It was afterward burned, when McClellan made his "change of base " from the
York to the James.
474 THE PENINSULAR CAMPAIGN. [CHAP. XVIII.
sent to him on the Peninsula. On the morning of the 24th of May a
despatch announced that this corps would soon be with him :
Jackson on L
the shenan- but in the afternoon another despatch informed him that
doah. '
the execution of the order to McDowell had been suspended.
The reason for this sudden change is to be found in the bold and
skilful operations of "• Stonewall " Jackson in the. valley of the Shen-
andoah. When Johnston moved towards Yorktown, Jackson had
been left behind in the valley, with about 6,000 men, and Ewell
with as many more on the Rappahannock, their forces being soon
after united. By the 23d of May, Jackson had driven the Federal
forces from the valley, and was supposed to be marching upon Wash
ington. On the 25th the Secretary of War telegraphed to the Gov
ernors of the Northern States : " Intelligence from various quarters
leaves no doubt that the enemy in great force are marching upon
Washington. You will please organize and forward immediately all
the militia and volunteer forces in your State ; " and on the same
day the President took possession of the railroads, to be used for
transmitting troops and munitions of war. McDowell, with 40,000
men, and Fremont with 20,000, were sent by different routes against
Jackson, who had barely 16,000. By rapid marches he eluded both
for a while ; but on the 8th of June the three armies came within
sight of each other at Port Republic, a little hamlet near the junc
tion of the north and south forks of the Shenandoah. Here ensued a
desultory engagement, known as the battle of the Cross Keys. Both
sides claimed this as a victory ; but the real advantage lay with Jack
son, who gained his object of escaping across the South Fork of the
Shenandoah. He remained here for a fortnight, when he was sum
moned to the Chickahominy.
To the order depriving him of McDowell's corps, McClellan
ThePn-si- mainly ascribes the disastrous result of his campaign. The
ftfccieUAn President explained in reply that Banks had been driven to
Winchester, and from Winchester to Martinsburg ; that the
advance of the enemy seemed a general one, and not as " if he was
acting upon the purpose of a very desperate defence of Richmond."
He adds : " I think the time is near when you must either attack
Richmond or give up the job and come to the defence of Washing
ton." However willing the rebels might be to exchange Richmond
for Washington, Mr. Lincoln was not disposed to take that risk by
leaving the capital defenceless for the sake of reenforcing the army in
the swamps of the Chickahominy.
One or two gleams of apparent success preluded the dark days to
come. Intelligence \vas received that a considerable force of the
enemy were near Hanover Court House, a few miles to the northeast
1862.]
BATTLE OF HANOVER COURT HOUSE.
475
of McClellan's right, and partly in his rear, "in a position," he says,
" either to reenforce Jackson or to impede McDowell's iunc-
,. i i i i £ 11 • • >» TI. i B»«leof
tion, should lie anally move to join us. It was supposed Hanover
that this force had been sent from Richmond, whereas it
really consisted of Branch's North Carolinians, who were coming
there. Fitz John Porter was sent against them. On the 27th he
found them well posted near the Court-house. They were driven
from the field ; but most of them made their way to Richmond. The
results, as given by McClellan, were, " Some 200 of the enemy's dead
buried by our troops, 730 prisoners sent to the rear. Our loss
amounted to 53 killed, 344 wounded and missing."
Johnston — the wariest, and some think the ablest, of the Confed
erate generals — could not fail to perceive the faulty disposi- Battieof
tion which McClellan had made of his army. The left wing, Seveu Pines-
across the Qhickahominy, apparently invited attack. Johnston
thought that only
Keyes's corps was
over, whereas a part
of H e i n t z e 1 m a n's
was there, making
the whole number
not less than 30,000.
Upon this the rebel
general undertook
to throw his whole
disposable force,
consisting of the di
visions of Huger,
Longstreet, D. H.
Hill, and G. W.
Smith, numbering
in all nearly 50,000.
Longstreet and Hill
were to attack in front, Huger on the Federal left, and Smith on
their right. But Huger lost his way, and did not come up, so that
the actual attacking force was something less than 40,000. The at
tack was to be made on the 31st of May. On the preceding after
noon a furious storm set in, which retarded the movements. This
Johnston thought an advantage.
The attack was to be made at daybreak ; but it was eight o'clock
before Longstreet and Hill were in position on the front. They
waited until a little past noon for Huger to strike upon the Federal
left. He did not come, and Longstreet opened the fight. The bulk
White House.
476
THE PENINSULAR CAMPAIGN.
[CHAP. XVIII.
of Keyes's corps was slightly intrenched at Seven Pines, on the Wil-
liamsburg road, half way between the Chickahominy and Richmond.
Casey's division had been pushed a mile farther ; but he was soon
forced back to Seven Pines, where the fighting was hot for two
hours, when Casey's troops gave way, and fell back in some disorder.
Couch's division took a road to the right, where it soon found itself
engaged in the quite separate battle of Fair Oaks. At dusk Heintzel-
man and Keyes, with mere fragments of regiments, formed a new line.
This poured in so hot a fire that the rebels recoiled. The Federal
troops then fell back a mile or two, and both armies lay upon their
arms. The battle of Seven Pines, although indecisive, had been in
favor of the enemy, Longstreet and Hill having forced back the left
and centre. If things had gone as well with Smith on the right, a
complete victory might be expected
the next day. Johnston had taken
his place with Smith's division, in
order, as he says, "that I might be
on a part of the field where 1 could
observe and be ready to meet any
counter movement which the enemy
might make against our centre and
left. Owing to some peculiar condi
tion of the atmosphere, the sound of
the musketry did not reach us. I
consequently deferred giving the sig
nal for General Smith to attack until
four o'clock." By this time an unex
pected Federal force had come upon
that part of the field.
The noise of the opening action at the Seven Pines, inaudible to
Johnston, four miles away, was heard at McClellan's head
quarters on the other side of the Chickahominy, eight or
ten miles distant in a straight line. McClellan was ill, but he or
dered Simmer, who had constructed two shaky bridges over the
stream, to hold himself in readiness to cross. Sunnier was more than
ready to obey. The water had begun to rise, and the approaches to
the bridges were like floating rafts. Sumner, with a single division,
that of Sedgwick, crossed, and guided by the noise of the firing
marched toward the battle-field. At Fair Oaks Station on the rail
road, he met Couch, who said that in falling back from the Seven
Pines his division was separated from the rest of the corps, and
that he was in momentary expectation of being attacked. Before
Sumner could bring his troops into line, the enemy attacked. The
Erastus D. Keyes.
Battle of
Fair Oaks.
1862.] BATTLE OF FAIR OAKS. 477
action lasted two or three hours. " The strength of the enemy's po
sition," says Johnston, ''enabled him to hold it until dark." Su in
ner then ordered a charge, by which the assailants were driven back,
and both armies bivouacked on the field so close to each other that
their sentinels were within speaking distance.
The battle of the Seven Pines had gone in favor of the rebels ;
that of Fair Oaks in favor of the Union forces ; yet neither was de
cisive. All depended on what should be done the next day. Just at
sunset Johnston was struck by the fragment of a shell, and was borne
away, it was thought fatally wounded. The command devolved upon
Smith, by right of seniority. After the action was over, Richardson's
division of Simmer's corps came up, and was posted so that it could
take part in the expected fight of the next day. In the morning
Smith found that Longstreet at the Seven Pines was in no condition
to renew the battle in that quarter ; but it was resumed at Fair Oaks,
where Sumner had been further strengthened by Hooker's division of
Heintzelman's corps. In an hour all was over, and the entire Confed
erate force fell back in disorder to Richmond. About noon McClel-
lan came over. He was quite satisfied with what had been achieved,
and had no special orders to give. In the judgment of all his corps-
commanders, if the pursuit had been pressed, Richmond would have
fallen. The Federal losses in this double battle are offi
cially given as 890 killed, 3,627 wounded, and 1,222 miss
ing, — 5,732 in all. The Confederate loss is not certain, but prob
ably the actual losses upon each side were not far from equal.
Smith's command of the Confederate army lasted only three days.
He had, it is said, a slight paralytic stroke, and the com- Leeincom.
mand was given to General Robert E. Lee. Lee Avas now mand-
fifty-five years of age. He graduated at West Point in 1829, with
high honors. At the outbreak of the war he was serving in Texas
as a colonel of cavalry, but his name stood first on the list for
promotion to the rank of general. When Virginia acceded to the
Confederacy, he was made a brigadier-general and commander of the
State forces, though outranked by several others. He was first sent to
Western Virginia, but when the Federal forces began to menace
Richmond he was called thither, nominally as superintendent of the
defences of the capital, but really as acting Secretary of War. He
surrounded Richmond with defensive works, organized and disciplined
the rapidly increasing army, and kept a watchful eye upon the ac
tion of his opponent.
After the battle of Fair Oaks McClellan occupied himself for
nearly a month in building bridges across the Chickahominy. j5rif]gp.
There were eleven of them ; but only eight seem to have been buil(lins
necessary. For a week after the battle of Fair Oaks, the (4en<M-;il
478
THE PENINSULAR CAMPAIGN.
[CHAP. XVIII.
complained of the weather. The river rose and flooded the entire
bottom, and the country was impassable for artillery and cavalry ex
cept upon the narrow roads. No movement, he said, was possible
against the enemy, but he asked that detachments should be sent him
from Halleck's army. Halleck's army in the Mississippi Valley had
Reenforco- gained signal successes, and was now engaged in operations
which rendered it unadvisable that it should be weakened.
But McDowell's corps, or at least McCall's division of it, had been
again promised to McClellan. He had apparently been satisfied with
this, for on the 7th of June he wrote : " I shall be in perfect readi
ness to move forward and take Richmond the moment McCall reaches
here, and the ground will admit the passage of artillery." McCall's
division, 10,000 strong, arrived on the 12th ; about the same time
some regiments, numbering 5,000 men, had been sent up from For
tress Monroe, raising the force under McClellan's immediate command
to the highest point which it reached during this campaign. The
returns for June 14 showed 158,838 men, of whom 115,152 were
present for duty.
On the 13th of June headquarters were moved across the Chicka-
hominy. On that day Stuart, with 1,500 cavalry, set out
upon a bold raid clear around the Federal lines. He crossed
the Chickahominy some distance above McClellan's extreme right,
then, turning southeastwardly, he dashed to the White House, de-
Stuart'g
raid.
1862.]
OVER THE CHICKAHOMINY.
479
stroying some depots of provisions, and recrossed the Chickahominy
some miles below the extreme Federal left. He brought with him
one hundred and sixty-five prisoners and twice as many horses, hav
ing lost only one man.
The corps of Heintzelman, Keyes, and Sunnier were already across
the Chickahominy ; that of Franklin was soon brought over, Final prepa_
leaving only Porter's corps and McCall's division on the rations-
north side. On the 18th of June McClellan telegraphed to the Presi
dent : " Our army is well over the Chickahominy. The rebel lines
run within musket range of ours. A general engagement may take
place at any hour. After to-morrow we shall fight the rebel army as
soon as Providence
permits. We shall
await only a favora
ble condition of earth
and sky, and the
completion of some
necessary prelimina
ries." Another week
passe d, m ar ked
mainly by occasional
picket - firing. Oil
the 25th, he said,
" the bridges and in
trench ments being at
last completed, a n
advance of our picket
line on the left was
ordered, preparatory
to a general advance
movement," the ob
ject being to ascertain the nature of a belt of swampy ground a mile
beyond the Seven Pines. The movement was opposed, and there was
a desultory conflict, lasting from eight o'clock in the morning till five
in the afternoon. The insurgents called this the battle of King's
School House. Each side lost five or six hundred men. McClellan
says this " was not a battle, but merely an affair of Heintzelman's
corps, supported by Keyes, with some aid from Sunnier." At five
o'clock he telegraphed to Washington : " The affair is now over, and
we have gained our point. All is now quiet."
Within less than two hours he put upon the wires a quite different
despatch. Jackson's advance, he said, was at Hanover Court House ;
Beauregard was at Richmond ; a rebel force of 200,000 men was op-
Hanover Court House.
480 THE PENINSULAR CAMPAIGN. [CHAP. XVIII.
posed to him, and he would probably be attacked the next day, and
Mccieiian-s should have to contend against vastly superior numbers.
He would do all he could, but if his army was destroyed,
he could at least die with it, and share its fate. There was no use of
asking for further reinforcements. If the result should be disaster,
the responsibility could not be thrown upon his shoulders. There Avas
not in all this, that entire accuracy to be looked for in affairs of
great importance at decisive moments from officers in posts of great
responsibility. Beauregard was, in fact, hundreds of leagues away in
Alabama, and had been removed from his command in the Missis
sippi region. This only was true, — that Jackson was not very far
from Hanover Court House, and McClellan was to be attacked the
next day. But there was no overwhelming force against him. The
numbers on each side were about equal, neither varying much from
100,000 men ; the national force being, probably, a little more, the
rebel a little less.
Thursday, June 26th, had been fixed upon by both Lee and
McClellan for a decided offensive movement. Lee took the
Battle of.... -i • i i«r
Beaver Dam initiative. According to his plan, Magrudei" and linger
were to remain in front of Richmond, and Holmes at Fort
Darling, ready to cross the James when ordered. On this side of the
Chickahominy were about 33,000 men, besides cavalry. On that side
McClellan had fully 70,000. The divisions of A. P. Hill, Longstreet,
and D. H. Hill, 34,000 in all, were to cross the Chickahominy above
the Federal right, unite with Jackson, and then, about 60,000 strong,
to press down upon Porter, whose corps, with McCall's division, num
bered 30,000, besides cavalry. Longstreet and the Hills began their
march during the night of the 25th. Early the next morning they
reached the river and waited until afternoon for the coming of Jack
son, whose march had been delayed. At four o'clock A. P. Hill
crossed and attacked the extreme right of the Federal army, thus
beginning the actual fighting of the historic Seven Days.1 The Fed
eral position, held by two brigades of McCall's division of 6,000 men,
was a strong one. In front was Beaver Dam Creek, five or six yards
wide, and four feet deep, with steep banks, beyond which was an open
field that the assailants must cross under the fire of the Federal artil
lery. The attack made by the Hills was with about 12,000 men.
They were repulsed at nightfall, and withdrew, having lost about
1,500 men, the loss on the other side being not more than 300. This
1 The actions during this period have been variously designated. That of the 26th has
been styled the battle of Beaver Dam Creek, or of Meohaniesville; that of the 27th, the
battle of Cold Harbor, Gaines's Mill, or the Chickahominy ; that of the .30th, the battle
of Frazier's Farm, or of Charles City Court House.
1862.]
BATTLE OF COLD HARBOR.
position was held merely to check the advance of the enemy, and dur
ing the night McCall was withdrawn to join Porter in his position at
Cold Harbor, five miles below.
Early the next morning, D. H. Hill bore a little northward to unite
with Jackson, under whose command his division remained Battle of
for the rest of this campaign. A. P. Hill and Long- <-wiiarbor.
street moved down the bank of the Chickahominy. Their advance
was slow, for they might come
at any moment upon the Fed
eral troops. At noon, Hill,
who was in the advance,
reached Gaines's Mill, where
a slight skirmish ensued. A
little beyond the Federal force
was drawn up on the opposite
side of a shallow creek, in front
of which, was a swampy plain
a quarter of a mile broad, bor
dered by a tangled under
growth. Porter's , line was
drawn up semi-circularly, so as
to cover the bridge across the
Chickahominy.
At half-past two Hill began
the attack. His brigades
dashed across the plain, floun
dered through the swamp, and
pressed up the opposite slope, under a fierce fire of artillery and
musketry. For two hours the contest was obstinate ; then IIiirs re.
the Confederate troops gave way, and fell back in apparent pulse'
rout. Longstreet was now ordered to support Hill, by making a feint
on the left: but he found it necessary to bring on his whole
force, and make a real attack. At this moment Jackson's
, , T , . , ,
command came down, and Lee ordered a general advance
along the whole line. It was now past four o'clock. Two hours
before this Porter had sent over to McClellan for aid. McClellan,
foreseeing the probable necessity of this, had ordered early in the
morning a part of Franklin's corps to cross; and soon after counter
manded the order. But they were now directed anew to cross, and
came upon the field 8,000 strong, soon after the general attack had
begun. Still the Confederates had fully three to two, their whole
force, with the exception of a single brigade, 1,400 strong, kept in
reserve, being hotly engaged. An hour before sunset the great pre-
VOL. IV. 31
James Longstreet.
Lonratreet
and Jackson.
482 THE PENINSULAR CAMPAIGN. [CHAP. XVIII.
ponderance of the assailants had enabled them, though at a fearful
cost, to pass the swamp and thus place themselves upon equal ground.
The Federal line was severely pressed, and began to give way at
every point. It was not yet a rout, though fast threatening to be
come one. The core of every division was still solid, but fragments
were breaking off. All, whether soldiers or fugitives, were press
ing towards the bridge. Just at dusk the brigades of French and
Meagher appeared from the other side. Dashing up to the crest of
the bluff, they moved straight upon the Federal rear, now to become
the front. Those who had been retreating faced around, and a firm
line was formed. The Confederates paused in the pursuit, gave a
few volleys, and fell back, as darkness was setting in.
When morning broke, the Union forces were safely across the
Chickahominy. Their loss in killed and wounded was about
4,000, besides some 2,000 prisoners, consisting mainly of
three regiments, who had been isolated during the Confederate rush.
They also lost twenty-two guns. The enemy, attacking under a
heavy fire, suffered far more severely. Their loss in killed and
wounded was about 9,500.
While this battle was in progress, McClellan had fully 70,000
men on his side of the Chickahominy. Between him and
Across the _ . T * • i i i
chickahom- Richmond were only Huger and Magruder, with barely
25,000 men. But this force was so handled that even Sum-
ner and Franklin thought that it was as much as they could do to
hold their positions. The ground in front of them was cut up by
ridges, wooded swamps, and ravines, which shut out all sight of
what was passing a few hundred yards away. A body of the enemy
appearing at any point might be a single regiment, or the head of
a division. The Confederates showed themselves at one point and
soon after at another, thus apparently doubling or trebling their real
numbers. There was, however, no real fighting on this side of the
river until about sunset, when Toombs undertook with t\vo small regi
ments to drive in a Federal picket station. Out of 650 men he lost
nearly 200.
Towards midnight McClellan held a council of war. It was de
cided to make a " change of base." by abandoning the
McClellan to _,. . . T
theSecre Chickaliommy and retreating to the James. He then wrote
tary of War. . . . J
a bitter letter to the Secretary of War. He now knew,
he said, the whole history of the day. On the left bank of the
Chickahominy his men had done all that men could do, but they had
been repulsed by vastly superior numbers. On the right bank he
had repulsed several strong attacks. If he had 20,000 or even 10,000
more fresh troops he could take Richmond to-morrow ; but lie had
1862.] THE CHANGE OF BASE.
not a man in reserve, and he should be glad to retreat and save the
men and material. " And now," he concludes, "if I save this army,
I tell you plainly, that I owe no thanks to you or to any other per
sons in Washington. You have done your best to sacrifice this
army." To this the patient President replied : " Save your army at
all events ; you are ungenerous in assuming that reinforcements
have not been sent as fast as possible. Your repulse is the price we
pay for the safety of Washington." The impulsive Stanton, if left to
himself, would hardly have been so forbearing.
If Richmond could only be taken by a long siege, the James was
the best position. But it must have fallen in a few hours Perilof
had McClellan made a direct assault upon the 28th. To Richmond-
defend the long line of works there were only Magruder and Huger,
with about 25,000 men. Lee, with less than 50,000, after his losses,
was on the other side of the Chickahominy, and could not make the
march back by the way he had come in less than two days. Right
between the two Confederate bodies was McClellan's whole force,
fully 95,000 strong after its losses. A force of 25,000 men could
have prevented any passage of the river by Lee, and 70,000 could
have been hurled in a body upon the Confederate capital. Magruder
was fully aware of the peril of the situation. He says : " Had
McClellan massed his whole force in column and advanced it against
any point of our line of battle, though the head of the column would
have suffered greatly, its momentum would have insured him suc
cess, and the occupation of our works about Richmond, and conse
quently of the city, might have been his reward." Richmond lost, it
is not easy to conceive how the Confederate army could have failed
to go to pieces, for Lee had marched out with rations for not more
than four days, and within a hundred miles of him there was not, out
of Richmond, food enough for a week's supply for his army. Rich
mond was not taken, but why, nobody but General McClellan is
competent to answer.
Keyes moved first and took up a position on White Oak Creek, so
as to protect the passage of the trains, guarded by Franklin's Savage-8
and Porter's corps. Heintzelman and Sumner, who lay near- statlon-
est Richmond, came down to Savage's Station, destroyed such stores
as could not be taken away, and then moved on toward Malvern Hill.
They were followed by Magruder, with two or three brigades. An
attack was made upon Sumner, Magruder losing about 400 men, the
Union General about 600. At midnight Sumner abandoned this point,
leaving behind him 2,500 sick and wounded in the hospitals.
Early in the morning of that day Lee had become assured that
McClellan's entire army was retreating to the James. He resolved
484
THE PENINSULAR CAMPAIGN.
[CHAP. XVIII.
Lee's
Btrategy
upon a bold but hazardous movement. Jackson was to cross the
Chickahominy by tlie New Bridge, which Magruder had al
ready repaired, and fall upon the rear of the retreating army.
Longstreet and A. P. Hill were to cross by Sumner's Grapevine
Bridge, make a long detour almost to Richmond, and then, joined by
Magruder, Huger, and Holmes, fall upon the flank. It w^s esti
mated that 70,000 men were available for this combined movement.
It failed mainly because only A. P. Hill and Longstreet performed
the part assigned to them. Jackson crossed the Chickahominy on
the morning of the 30th, and at noon came up with the rear of the
Federal force at White Oak Creek. The bridge had been destroyed,
and all the approaches were covered by artillery. His men could
not be brought to face the hot fire to which they were exposed, and
all that afternoon he was compelled to listen idly to the noise of the
battle at Frazier's Farm, hardly two miles distant. Holmes had
crossed from Fort Darling, and early in the morning came in sight
of the head of the retreating Federal column. A few rounds of artil
lery and a few shells from the gunboats in the James, scattered his
raw troops. This was the only part which they took in the opera
tions of the Seven Days.
Longstreet and Hill crossed the Chickahominy on the morning of
the 29th, and at night encamped near the head of the White Oak
1862.]
BATTLE OF FRAZIER'S FARM.
485
Frazier's
Swamp. They had made a forced march under the hot midsum
mer sun, and many of the men dropped from sheer ex
haustion. Resuming their march in the morning, at noon
of the 30th they came close upon the centre of the Federal
column, the head of which had already reached Malvern Hill, the
rear being in the White Oak Swamp. The rebel generals waited for
three hours the arrival of Huger, who did not come up at all, having
lost his way, as he had done at the Seven Pines. At four o'clock, the
onset was begun by Longstreet, Hill soon following. The fight
lasted until dark, but owing to the nature of the region it AVHS a se
ries of combats between brigades, rather than a regular battle, yet
raging almost continuously along the whole line, each side alter
nately gaining and losing ground.
Of few battles are the accounts
given by the various trustworthy
actors so discordant. Sumner says :
"After a furious contest, lasting till
dark, the enemy was routed at all
points and driven from the field."
But there was no rout, and the Con
federates at the close remained in
possession of the field. A. P. Hill
gives a clearer account. He says :
" On our extreme right matters
seemed to be going badly. Two
brigades of Longstreet's division
had been roughly handled, and
fallen back. Archer was sent in,
and affairs were soon restored in
that quarter. About dark the enemy were pressing us hard along our
whole line, and my last I'eserve was directed to advance cautiously.
Heavy reserves of the enemy were brought up, and it seemed that a
tremendous effort was made to turn the fortunes of the battle. The
volume of fire that, approaching, rolled along the whole line, was ter
rific. Seeing some troops of Wilcox's brigade, who had rallied, they
were rapidly re-formed, and being directed to cheer long and loudly,
they moved again to the fight. This seemed to end the contest, for
in less than five minutes all firing ceased, and the enemy retired."
As soon as it was clear that there would be no more fighting, the
Federal troops resumed their inarch, and in the morning the last of
them arrived at Malvern Hill. The Confederates remained
upon the battle-field, and so won a formal victory. But the
divisions of Longstreet and Hill were so shattered and exhausted that
Edwin V. Sumner.
486
THE PENINSULAR CAMPAIGN.
[CHAP. XVIII.
they were not called upon to take part in the great battle of the
next day. Hill had marched from Richmond four days before with
14,000 men ; here and at Beaver Dam and Cold Harbor he lost
3,780 killed and wounded. Longstreet had marched with 10,000;
here and at Cold Harbor he lost 4,182 killed and wounded, and
nearly 300 missing. The losses are not given separately for each
action. At Frazier's Farm the loss of the Confederates was, prob
ably, about 2,000 killed and wounded. The Federal loss was about
Gunboats at Malvern H
1,800 killed and wounded, besides 30 prisoners and 20 guns, captured
at the beginning of the action.
Malvern Hill is an elevated plateau, a mile and a half long and half
as broad. Along the front are ravines passable only where
they ai'e crossed by roads. As the troops came up, they were
assigned positions by General Barnard, the chief engineer;
for McClellan had gone to select a position upon the river to which
the army might continue its retreat. Sumner, by seniority of rank,
was left in command, without having been formally invested with it,
1862.]
BATTLE OF MALVEEN HILL.
487
or receiving instructions. The entire force was nearly 90,000. Both
flanks rested upon the James, and were protected by gunboats, on
one of which, it is said, McClellan had sought a place of safety. On
the crest of the hill were seven heavy siege guns, and the remainder
of the artillery was so posted that the fire of sixty pieces might be
concentrated upon any point from which the enemy could approach.
Jackson moved on as soon as the Federal position on White Oak
Creek was abandoned. His command had suffered severely at Cold
Harbor, and now, including D. H. Hill's division, it could not have
numbered more than 30,000. Hill's advance brought him at nine
o'clock in front of the Federal line. " Tier after tier of batteries,"
he says, " were grimly visible on the plateau, rising in the form of
an amphitheatre. We could
reach the first line of batteries
only by traversing an open space
of three or four hundred yards,
exposed to a murderous fire of
grape from the artillery, and of
musketry from the infantry. If
that was carried, another and
another, still more formidable,
remained in the rear." He
thought an attack would be
hazardous, and urged Lee not
to make the attempt. But Lee
was not ready to abandon his
elaborately conceived plan, al
though he could not bring many
more than 50,000 men to its
execution, and Jackson was or- Robert E. Lee.
dered to begin the assault. At
ten o'clock Hill advanced Anderson's brigade so that it came within
reach of the Federal artillery. " This brigade," he says, " was
roughly handled; the division was halted, and the Union position
was reconnoitered."
Magruder, in command of his own division, and virtually of that
of Huger, came up. Upon him the real work of attack was to fall,
preparations for which were completed at four o'clock in the after
noon. Lee wrote to each of his division commanders, " Batteries
have been established to act upon the enemy's lines. If they are
broken, as is probable, Armistead, who can witness the effect of the
fire, has been ordered to charge with a yell. Do you the same."
Each of these forty words cost him a hundred men. Fire was
488 THE PENINSULAR CAMPAIGN. [CHAT. XVIII.
opened by the Confederate batteries at six o'clock, and the real bat
tle of the day began.
Hill says that " Instead of one or two hundred pieces, only a
single battery opened, and that was knocked to pieces in a few min
utes : and one or two others shared the same fate of being beaten in
detail." He wrote to Jackson that "• the fire from the batteries was
of a most farcical character ; " but received for reply that he nmst
advance as ordered, as soon as he heard Armistead's yell. Armistead
drove in a few skirmishers, and gave the yell. Lee ordered Magruder
to press forward the whole line, and follow up Armistead's success.
In a few minutes Magruder's command was confronting a deadly fire.
'• The battle-field," he says, " was enveloped in smoke, relieved only
by flashes from the contending troops. Round shot and grape crashed
through the woods ; shells of enormous size, which reached far be
yond the headquarters of the commander-in-chief, burst amid the
artillery parked in the rear. Belgian missiles and minie balls lent
their aid to this scene of stupendous grandeur and sublimity." This
fire made no impression upon the Federal lines, not even disturbing
a single battery. Darkness set in, and then, continues Magruder,
" I concluded to let the battle subside." Hill in the mean time had
heard Armistead's j'ell, and an hour and a half before sunset pushed
his division forward. " We advanced alone," he says, not quite ac
curately ; " neither Whiting on the left, nor Huger on the right,
moved forward an inch. The division fought heroically, but in
vain. Finally Ewell came up, but it was after dark, and nothing
could be accomplished. I advised him to hold his ground, and not
to attempt a forward movement." Hill's division, 8,000 strong at
the beginning of this attack, lost 1,709 killed and wounded in that
hour and a half. The remainder of Jackson's command hardly
touched the battle at all.
The entire Federal loss during the six days is officially stated at
15,249, of whom 1,582 were killed, 7,709 wounded, and 5,958
missing. The Confederate losses in the divisions of Jack
son, D. H. Hill, Longstreet, and A. P. Hill are given in Lee's Report.
They amount to 14,645, of whom 2,472 were killed, 11,774 wounded,
and 399 missing. Magruder's losses may be estimated at about 4,500
in all ; making the entire Confederate loss something more than 19,000.
The pitiable condition of the Confederate army after the battle of
The night Malvern Hill is set forth by Trimble's account, embodied in
gon^Land- I^e's Report. He says : " The next morning by dawn I went
off to ask for orders, when I found the whole army in the
utmost disorder. Thousands of straggling men were asking every
passer-by for their regiments ; ambulances, wagons, and artillery were
1862.] FLIGHT TO HARRISON'S LANDING. 489
obstructing every road, and altogether, in the drenching rain, present
ing a scene of the most woful and heart-rending confusion." The
Federal army in its retreat from the Chickahominy had suffered lit
tle, except that small portion engaged at Frazier's Farm ; it outnum
bered the enemy by more than three to two, and was in far better
plight. Yet when in the gray dawn the Confederates looked up to
Malvern Hill, they saw no trace of the grim batteries and serried
lines against which they had dashed themselves in pieces. In the
darkness and storm, through mud and mire, McClellan had fled from
the field of a great victory, as though it had been one of a crushing
defeat. " The greater portion of the transportation of the army,"
says McClellan, " having been started for Harrison's Landing during
the night of the 30th of June and 1st of July, the order for the move
ment of the troops was at once issued upon the final repulse of the
enemy at Malvern Hill."
By midnight the army was on its weary march along a single nar
row passage. This retreat was a flight. " We were ordered to re
treat," says Hooker, "and it was like the retreat of a routed army.
We retreated like a parcel of sheep. Every one was on the road at
the same time, and a few shots from the rebels would have panic-
stricken the whole command." Keyes, who commanded the rear
guard, was thus instructed : " Bring along all the wagons you can ;
but they are to be sacrificed, of course, rather than imperil your
safety. Celerity of movement is the sole security of this position."
The distance was only fifteen miles, but the last of the trains did
not reach Harrison's Landing until noon of the 3d of July. On that
day McClellan telegraphed to Washington that the army was thor
oughly worn out. It was quite impossible to estimate his losses, but
he doubted if there were more than 50,000 men with their colors.
He hoped that the enemy were in no better plight, and that he should
have a breathing-space before he was again attacked ; but in order
to capture Richmond, reinforcements should be sent to him, rather
much more than less than 100,000 men."
With the flight from Malvern Hill, properly closed this ill-omened
Peninsular Campaign, though the army remained on the
James until the middle of August. During this period fon's Land-
much was proposed, but nothing was done, and little at
tempted. To McClellan's repeated requests for large reinforcements,
first for 50,000, then for 100,000 men, even "more rather than less,"
the President had replied that the demands were absurd and compli
ance impossible, for there were not, at that time, outside of the army
on the Peninsula, seventy-five thousand troops in the service east of
the mountains. The campaign from Yorktown to Harrison's Land-
490 THE PENINSULAR CAMPAIGN. [CHAP. XVIII.
ing was three months of disastrous failure. McClellan's attempt to
throw the responsibility upon the Government, because it declined
to supply him with all the men he asked for, was meant to hide an
unwilling service or a confession of his incapacity to cope with the
enemy unless he outnumbered him at least three to one. There is
not, perhaps, in history so remarkable an instance of the patience and
forbearance of a government, with a general commanding its arm
ies in the field. It is the more remarkable that General McClellan
should at this time have had the presumption to write the President
a letter of advice as to the "civil and military policy" which he
— McClellan — thought should be adopted. While he was contin
ually demanding additions to his army, it appeared that over 38,000
men were absent on furlough, granted on his authority. On the 8th
of July the President, determined to see for himself the condition of
affairs, visited the army; on the 9th, he summoned a council of war
at the General's headquarters, and on requiring from each corps-com
mander the return of men fit for duty that morning, he found the
aggregate 86,000 more than the General had telegraphed to him, after
the army had reached Harrison's Landing.1
On the 4th of August the divisions of Hooker and Sedgwick took
possession of Malvern Hill, and made reconnoissances some miles to
ward Richmond. " I feel confident," telegraphed McClellan, " that
with reinforcements I could march this army there in five days."
Next morning peremptory orders were received from Halleck that the
army should be withdrawn from the Peninsula, and Malvern Hill was
again abandoned. McClellan urged that the order for withdrawal
should be rescinded. Hooker thought it should be disregarded.
They had sufficient men, he said, to capture Richmond. If the at
tempt should fail, it would probably cost McClellan his head, "• but
he might as well die for an old sheep as for a lamb." For a moment
McClellan seemed inclined to run the risk. On the 10th Hooker
received a written order which was communicated to the whole army,
to provide himself with three days' rations, and hold himself in read
iness to march on the llth. " I firmly believed," says Hooker,
"that this order meant Richmond; but before the time came for ex
ecuting it, it was countermanded."
Halleck telegraphed that the order for withdrawal would not be
rescinded, and directed that it should be promptly carried into effect.
" I polled the corps-commanders," said Mr. Lincoln, describing the scene, a few days
afterward, in a private conversation with the author, "as one polls a jury. I asked of
each the return of men present for duty in his corps that morning, put down the figures,
added them up, and then passed the sheet to General McClellan, without a word. The
difference between the sum and his statement was thirty-six thousand."
1862.]
WITHDRAWAL FROM THE PENINSULA.
491
On the 16th of August, the stores and the sick were embarked. A
pontoon bridge for the passage of the troops had been thrown
Withdrawal
across the Chickahominy towards its mouth. On the 18th from the
the rear-guard was over, and the bridge was taken down.
McClellan had apprehended an attack upon his rear, and was ill at
ease until the Chickahom-
iny was between him and
the enemy. But for days
and weeks there had been
hardly the show of a Con
federate force near him.
Jackson and A. P. Hill
had been sent towards the
Rappahannock ; Lee with
most of the remainder of his army had followed on the 13th. At
and near Richmond were only the weak division of D. H. Hill and a
few thousand raw conscripts.
Wet Weather on the Chickahominy.
CHAPTER XIX.
NORTHERN VIRGINIA AND MARYLAND.
POPE IN COMMAND IN NORTHERN VIRGINIA. — HALLECK MADE COMMANDER-IJT-
CHIEF. — JACKSON SENT TO GORDONS VILLE. — BATTLE OF CEDAR MOUNTAIN. —
LEE MOVES FROM RICHMOND TO THE RAPPAHANNOCK. — BATTLE OF GROVETOX. —
PANIC AT WASHINGTON. — MCCLELLAN IN COMMAND. — THE INVASION OF MARY
LAND. — BATTLE OF ANTIETAM. — PRELIMINARY PROCLAMATION OF EMANCIPATION.
— McCLELLAN'S DISLOYALTY* TO THE GOVERNMENT. - HE IS SUPERSEDED BY BuRN-
SIDE. — BATTLE OF FREDERICKSBURG. — THE CAMPAIGN IN THE MUD. — BURXSIDE
SUPERSEDED BY HoOKKR.
ON the 26th of June, the first of the "Seven Days" of the Penin-
sula, General John Pope, who had been called from the
West, was put in command of the Army of Virginia, com
posed of the corps of McDowell, Fremont, and Banks. Fremont, ob
jecting to being placed under an officer whom he outranked, was
relieved at his own request, and his command given to Sigel. The
army, 40,000 strong, was widely scattered. A part was at Fredericks-
burg, on the Rappahannock ; a part at Manassas Junction, thirty
miles to the north; a part in the Valley of the Shenandoah, thirty
miles farther to the northwest. Pope's first action was to bring the
force nearer together, posting it upon a line forty miles long, running
northwestwardly from Fredericksburg. His plan was to threaten
Richmond, thereby compelling Lee to detach a portion of his army
from McClellan's front. The movement was necessarily postponed
by McClellan's retreat to James River.
ropc and
1862.]
POPE IN NORTHERN VIRGINIA.
493
So essentially did the ideas of these two Generals differ as to the
proper conduct of the war, that any cooperation between them was
impossible unless both were subordinate to a common superior.
Partly, perhaps, for this reason, and partly because the confidence of
the Administration in McClellan's capacity, or honesty, was thor
oughly shaken, General Halleck was called from the West and made
General-in-chief, assuming command on the 23d of July. Pope had
already proposed, and the Government had assented, that the Army
of Virginia, while still covering
Washington, should advance
upon Gordonsville, a place com
manding the railroad communi
cations witli the far South and
Southwest. This, it was pre
sumed, would induce Lee to send
thither a considerable part of his
army from Richmond, and aid
any movement made by the
Army of the Potomac against
the rebel capital.
Pope took the field in Virginia,
as he afterwards said, "• with
grave forebodings of the result,
but with a determination to carry
out the plans of the Government
with all the energy and skill of
which I am master." No trace
of such forebodings appeared in his address to the army, issued on
the 14th of July, which implied a sharp censure upon the Pope's aa-
,. . T7. . . TT i 1 dress to his
entire conduct or the campaign m Virginia. He had come, Army,
he said, "from the West, where we have always seen the backs of our
enemies ; from an army whose policy has been attack, not defense."
Lee saw the significance of this threatened movement, and hastened
to meet it. On the 13th of July he sent Jackson, with his Confederate
own division and that of Ewell, to Gordonsville, with the movt'ments-
promise of reenforcements. Jackson found that Pope was too strong
to warrant offensive operations, and contented himself with occupying
Gordonsville. A fortnight passed, when it was learned that Burn-
side's corps had sailed from North Carolina, and arrived at Fortress
Monroe ; thence it had gone to the Rappahannock instead of going to
McClellan on the James. On the 27th Lee sent A. P. Hill's division
to Jackson at Gordonsville, raising his force to 35,000. Jackson then
moved northward, while Pope had already begun to move southward.
Henry W. Halleck.
494
NORTHERN VIRGINIA AND MARYLAND. [CHAP. XIX.
Quite by accident the advance of the two armies came into col
lision on the 9th of August at Cedar Mountain, twenty miles
Battle of . J
cedar Moun- north of Gordonsville. Banks was here with 8,000 men, and
tain.
was attacked by Ewell with about as many. For a while the
fight was in favor of the national troops ; but rebel reinforcements
coming up, Banks was driven back, pursued by the enemy. Pope was
a few miles away with the bulk of his force. He hurried up, and at
dark checked the pursuit. Jackson then fell back to the battle-field
of the morning. For two days the armies lay fronting each other,
neither commander caring to attack. Jackson then learning that
Pope had received some re enforcements from Burnside's corps, fell
Cedar Mountain.
back across the Rapidan. The rebel loss at Cedar Mountain is given
at 1,314, of whom 223 were killed, 1,060 wounded, and 31 missing.
Pope puts his at about 1,900 killed, wounded, and missing.
Meanwhile the force at Richmond had been largely augmented by
Lee's ad- conscription. By the 13th of August it was certain that
iuppahanhe the national army was to be withdrawn from the Peninsula.
Pope learned that the enemy were moving upon him in
great force, and fell back across the Rappahannock. Lee came up to
the river with 80,000 men ; Pope, with 45,000, confronted him on the
other bank, being assured that he should be largely reenforced within
three days. On the 20th his pickets were driven in. For two days
Lee sought to find an unguarded place to cross the river ; but Pope
1862.]
CATLETT'S STATION.
495
was always in front of him in force sufficient to meet any serious
attempt.
On the stormy night of the 22d an incident occurred which gave
shape to the campaign. Pope's headquarters were at Cat- Catlett-s
lett's Station, ten miles in the rear of the centre of his line, statlon-
guarded by 1,500 infantry and a few companies of horse. Stuart,
with 1,500 cavalry, crossed the river some distance above Pope's right,,
and, guided by a negro, dashed through the darkness upon the tents
occupied by Pope's staff, some of whom were made prisoners. Be-
Stuart's Raid.
fore the alarm could be given,
he rode off, having lost but
two men in this daring raid.
But he had secured a prize
which proved of inestimable
value. This was Pope's despatch-book, containing precise informa
tion of the numbers and positions of the forces then with him, of the
reinforcements promised to him, and the quarter from which they
were to come. This information rendered it possible, and even prob
able, that if the entire Confederate army could be flung upon Pope's
rear, his communications might be cut off, and his army routed before
it could be reenforced from the Army of the Potomac. This move
ment must be a surprise; and to give success the first part must be
made with a celerity impossible for an army incumbered with trains.
Lee must therefore divide his force for some four days, in face of an
enemy probably outnumbering either division, though much inferior
496 NORTHERN VIRGINIA AND MARYLAND. [CHAP. XIX.
to both combined. There was danger in the attempt ; bat the chances
of success were thought sufficient to warrant the risk.
The initial movement was committed to Jackson, who began his
Jackson's march on the morning of the 25th .of August. Unincum-
bered by anything except his artillery, he moved rapidly up
through the narrow valley on the east side of the Bull Run Moun
tains, by rude country roads and across the fields. At midnight lie
reached the head of Thoroughfare Gap, through which the mountains
must be passed. This narrow gap might have been held for hours by
five thousand men against fifty thousand. It was wholly unguarded,
and on the morning of the 27th Jackson passed through, and headed
southward for Bristoe Station, an important point on the railroad
which formed Pope's main source of supply. Leaving Ewell here,
Jackson went northward to Manassas Junction, where was an im
mense depot of stores, almost unguarded. These were taken, and
what could not be consumed on the spot were destroyed. Pope had
in the mean while learned of this movement, and had despatched
Hooker towards Bristoe. A sharp encounter took place that evening,
in which Ewell was worsted.
Jackson's position was now critical. Pope was aroused ; his corps
were approaching from different points, and in a few hours
Jackson's . ° . .
defensive might tall upon Jackson in greatly superior torce. Long-
street's corps had begun to move, but it was distant two
days' march, and perhaps more. Jackson's course was speedily de
cided upon. He would fall back towards Thoroughfare Gap, and
take up a position which he hoped to hold until Longstreet came up.
To mask his purpose he first moved northeastward to Centreville,
then turned westward, and took up his defensive position upon the
spot where the battle of Bull Run had been fought, a little more
than a year before. The position was strong, part of it lying along
an abandoned railroad, whose deep cutting formed an admirable iii-
trenchment.
The battle was fairly opened on the morning of the 29th. It raged
from daylight until after dark, Jackson standing upon the
Gwreton. defensive. After midnight Jackson withdrew his left, so as
to enable it to connect with Longstreet, whose advance was
now at the head of Thoroughfare Gap. To Pope this looked like a
forced retreat, and early next morning he wrote to Washington :
" We fought a terrific battle here yesterday with the combined forces
of the enemy, which lasted from daylight until dark, by which time
the enemy was driven from the field, which I now occupy. The news
has just reached us from the front that the enemy is retreating to the
mountains. I go forward to see." On the morning of the 30th more
BATTLE OF (JROVETON.
497
of his troops had coine up, raising his force to 40,000. At noon he
was confirmed in his belief that the enemy was retreating.
McDowell was ordered to press on in pursuit. The sup- c.'rov
posed flight and pursuit soon became a battle, in which
nearly the entire force on both sides was at last engaged. The Fed
eral troops attacked along Jackson's whole front, and gained some
advantage. Jackson says: "At four o'clock the Federal infantry ad
vanced in several lines, first engaging our right, but soon extending
the attack to the centre and left. In a few moments our entire line
was engaged in a fierce and san
guinary struggle with the ene
my. As one line was repulsed
another took its place. So im
petuous and well-sustained were
these onsets as to induce me to
send to the commanding general
for reinforcements." Lee or
dered Longstreet to send aid
to Jackson. But Longstreet
brought artillery to bear upon
the Federal ranks, and their ad
vance was checked. Then, he
says, •' my whole line was rushed
forward at a charge."
Longstreet's line was nearly John Pope
at a right angle with that of
Jackson, but quite out of sight, being concealed from the Federal view
by the formation of the ground. Porter's corps, and some other troops,
were close to the angle made by these lines. Hard by wras a hillock
from which Reynolds's division had fallen back before Longstreet's
battery. Warren — then a colonel, soon to be a major-general —
seized this point, with two weak New York regiments and a battery,
holding it until he was fairly enveloped by the advancing enemy.
Out of 990 men, he lost 443. The brunt of Longstreet's charge now
fell upon Porter's corps. Outnumbered three to one, outflanked on
the left, and unsheltered on the right, where Ileintzelinan was fall
ing back before Jackson's advance, this corps retreated in good order,
still showing a firm front, and checking the pursuit. It had entered
into the action 9,000 strong, and sustained a loss of 2,174. Next
morning the Federal army, defeated but not routed, crossed the Bull
Run, and fell back to Centreville.
These consecutive actions have been called "the Second Bull Run,"
or '• the Second Manassas." A better designation is the Battle of
VOL. iv. 32
498 NORTHERN VIRGINIA AND .MARYLAND. [CiiAi-. XIN.
Groveton, from a little hamlet close by. The entire Confederate
loss since the 27th was 1,341 killed, and 7,069 wounded
— 8,410 in all. The Federal loss is not fully reported ; it
was probably about 11,000 killed and wounded. But the diminution
in the force was much greater, in all fully 20,000. Lee claims to
have taken 7,000 un wounded prisoners. Pope says, "Half the great
diminution in our forces was occasioned by skulking and straggling.
Thousands of men straggled away from their commands, and were
never in any action."
On the 31st a fierce storm set in, but Jackson crossed the Bull
Affair at ^ul1 ailc^ attempted to turn the Federal right. McDowell
chantiiiy. au(j Heintzelman were sent to oppose him, and at dusk on
September 1st, the heads of the forces met at Chantiiiy. There was
a slight encounter, to which darkness put an end, but the loss was
greater than in many a large battle, for Stevens and Kearny, two
of the most promising Union generals, were killed while leading
their commands and in front of their line of battle. Next morning
Lee was joined by D. H. Hill's division, which had been hurried by
forced marches from near Richmond.
On the 2d of September Pope's situation at Centreville was far
from unfavorable. Banks and some others of his own army
The situa
tion. Mo-
Clollan in
tion. MC- ]ia(j now jome(j ]imi ; Franklin and Sunnier had arrived
nearly 20,000 fresh men from the Army of the Poto
mac, making his whole force about 70,000. Lee, including D. H.
Hill's newly arrived division, had about as many. But Pope had
the advantage of intrenchments, and moreover could be largely re-
enforced from Washington, while Lee could not count upon another
man from any quarter. But terror reigned at Washington, and the
army was called back from Centreville to protect the capital. That
the campaign had been conducted with great courage, energy, and
ability by Pope, there could be no question ; that it had failed, so far
as it was a failure, because McClellan had withheld his aid, in spite
of Halleck's urgent and unceasing orders, was equally plain. Nev
ertheless the Government in this emergency turned to McClellan,
and on the 2d of September appointed him to the "• command of the
fortifications of Washington, and of all the troops for the defence of
the capital." The simple fact was, that McClellan had organized
a party for his own support in the army, which the Administration
was too prudent or too timid to affront. Pope, at his own request,
was reassigned to his former position in the West, and the Army of
Virginia was merged into that of the Potomac.
~ O
A movement into Maryland, and a menace at least against Penn
sylvania, had long been a favorite idea with Jackson. It now seemed
1862.]
THE INVASION OF MARYLAND.
499
to Lee that the time had come when this might be attempted. The
movement was commenced on the 3d of September, and
on the 5th the army crossed the Potomac at a point thirty sion of™
miles above Washington. The entire force was not more
than 60,000 ; for by casualties in battle, exhaustion, and desertion,
Lee had lost fully 30,000 men in six weeks. The march from Ma-
nassas to the Potomac had been especially trying. On the Lee,s ad_
7th the army reached Frederick City, where Lee issued ^^i^f110
an address to the people of Maryland. The people of the Mar>land-
Confederate States, he said, had long watched the wrongs inflicted
upon the citizens of a com
monwealth to which they
were bound by so many ties,
and wished to aid them in
throwing off this "foreign
yoke." There would be no
compulsion or intimidation,
" and while the Southern
people will rejoice to wel
come you to your natural
position among them, they
will only welcome you when
you come of your own free
will." Bradley Johnson, a
Marylander in the Confed
erate service, put forth a call
for recruits : " We have arms
for you," he said, " and I am
authorized to muster in for
the war companies and regiments. Let each man provide himself
with a stout pair of shoes, a good blanket, and a tin cup. Jackson's
men have no baggage." Less than 500 Marylanders responded to
this appeal.
McClellaii rapidly reorganized the army, and in less than a week
had 172,000 men, of whom 100,000 were to form the mov- McCIeilan>s
able force, the remainder to be retained for the defence of movcment8-
the capital. Banks was placed in command of the fortifications at
Washington, his old corps being given to Mansfield. Sumner, Frank
lin, Porter, and Burnside retained their old corps, considerably in
creased from the former Army of Virginia, while Hooker received
that of McDowell, between whom and McClellan there was no
friendly feeling. On the 7th McClellan moved towards Lee, whose
force he estimated at 120,000 — twice its actual number.
Thomas J. Jackson.
500 NORTHERN VIRGINIA AND MARYLAND. [CHAP. XIX.
On the 10th Lee moved northwestward, his immediate destination
Harper's being Hagerstown. He had to cross the South Mountain, a
Ferry- steep range one thousand feet high, cut through to a depth
of four hundred feet by Turner's and Crampton's Gaps, six miles
apart. The Federal advance reached Frederick on the 12th. Here
accident threw into McClellan's hands a copy of Lee's General Order
for the movements and operations of the next few days. At Harper's
Ferry were 14,000 raw Federal troops, under Colonel Miles, whom
Lee wished to capture or drive away. The Ferry, in a narrow valley
at the junction of the Potomac and Shenandoah, is commanded on
three sides by heights. If these were occupied, a force below would
be subject to a plunging fire, to which they could make no reply.
Lee purposed to take these heights by surprise. To do this he must
divide his army into two parts. Jackson's corps, now 15,000 strong,
was to pass through Turner's Gap, then make a wide detour, cross
ing the Potomac some miles above the Ferry, and going down seize
Bolivar Heights on the west. McLaws, with two divisions of Long-
street's corps, 15,000 strong, was to go by the way of Crampton's
Gap and seize Maryland Heights on the east, while Walker, with
4,000, was to move up the Potomac and seize London Heights on
the south. With Lee there would be Longstreet's two remaining
divisions, D. H. Hill's and the cavalry, 26,000 in all. Harper's Ferry
captured, the whole army was to be reunited at Hagerstown.
McClellan availed himself of this information. Franklin's corps
Crampton's was *° follow McLaws, overtake him if possible, or in any
Gap- case bar his direct way of rejoining Lee. But McLaws had
gained Maryland Heights before Franklin had cleared Crampton's
Gap. On the 14th McLaws sent back three brigades with orders to
hold the pass, if it cost the last man. These brigades were brushed
away after a fight in which the Federal loss was 115 killed and 416
wounded ; the Confederate loss something more, as they left behind
600 prisoners, mostly wounded. Franklin debouched into Pleasant
Valley, six miles from Harper's Ferry, from which firing was heard,
showing that the place had not yet fallen. Walker had already
gained London Heights.
Jackson gained Bolivar Heights, marching eighty miles in three
days. Harper's Ferry was now quite untenable, but there was noth
ing to prevent the troops there from marching away up the Poto
mac. The cavalry, some 2,000 in number, did so, and got
oiTiSer-s off. The infantry were raw men, with inexperienced offi
cers. Miles raised the white fiag in token of surrender, but
before it was seen he was mortally wounded. Unconditional surren
der was Jackson's only terms ; and more than 11,500 men laid down
1862.] THI-: INVASION OF MARYLAND. 501
their arms, and were at once paroled. The Confederates gained also
72 guns, 13,000 small arms, and some stores. In a few hours Jack
son was summoned to rejoin Lee, with whom things had gone ill, and
who was sorely bestead fifteen miles away. There was brief time
for rest. Jackson's old division, " the Stonewalls," were ordered at
three o'clock on the afternoon of the 16th to prepare rations for three
days. The march commenced at an hour after midnight, and in the
gray dawn of the 17th such of the men as could endure the march
appeared on what was to be the battle-field of Antietam, and were
forthwith assigned their place in the line. Jackson brought only
5,000 men.
In the mean time Lee and those with him had marched through
Turner's Gap, heading leisurely for Hagerstown. In the Turncr-s
afternoon of the 13th he learned that the Federals, whom Gap-
he supposed to be quietly resting at Frederick, were following him
through the Gap. He saw the peril of his situation. He had barely
26,000 men, stretched for two score miles along the road, and should
his pursuers pass the Gap, their whole force would be between him
and Harper's Ferry. Ordering his trains to cross the Potomac, at
a point further up than Harper's Ferry, D. H. Hill, whose division
was in the rear, was turned back to hold the Gap until he could be
aided by Longstreet. Hill, with 5,000 men, reached the crest of the
Gap at noon on the 14th, just as the Federal army — Hooker in ad
vance — appeared, coming up from the other side. For four hours
Hill contested the steep and narrow way, but was slowly pressed
back. A part of Longstreet's corps now came up, but they were
too late to change the fortune of the day. When night fell, the Gap
was clear for the passage of the whole Federal force in the morning.
Its loss in this, the battle of the South Mountain, was 312 killed and
1,234 wounded ; among the killed was General Reno. The Con
federate loss was greater, probably not less than 2,000 killed and
wounded. Hill says that of his 5,000 he had only 3,000 left. Long-
street's loss was also considerable.
Lee turned his retreat in the direction of Harper's Ferry, and on
the morning of the loth took up a defensive position on the Antietam
west side of Antietam Creek, near the little village of Creek-
Sharpsburg. The stream, fordable in many places, and crossed by
three stone bridges, was no formidable defence, but beyond it the
ground consisted of low swells with narrow valleys intervening, cut
up by patches of woodland, cultivated fields, with sunken roads,
fences, and stone walls. The limestone ridges crop up here and there
waist-high above the surface of the soil, giving good shelter to troops.
It was a position which 20,000 men might hope to hold against
502 NORTHERN VIRGINIA AND MARYLAND. [CHAP. XIX.
30,000, or which a commander with 30,000 might venture to assail
against 20,000. Lee had now not more than 22,000, besides cavalry,
which could here be of little service, but if he could hold his ground
for two days he might hope to be joined by as many more from
Harper's Ferry, of the capture of which he was well assured. Me-
Clellan reached the east bank of the Antietam in the afternoon. He
had with him 70,000 men, besides Franklin's corps a few hours dis
tant. He thought it too late to attack that day ; all the next day he
thought it too soon.
His plan, as finally decided upon was, as he says, uto attack the
enemy's left with the corps of Hooker and Mansfield, supported, if
necessary, by Franklin's, and as soon as matters looked favorable
there to move the corps of Burnside against the enemy's extreme
right; and whenever either of these flank movements should be suc
cessful, to advance our centre with all their forces then disposable."
This attacking "in driblets," as Simmer called it, enabled Lee to
mass his comparatively small force upon the point of immediate ac
tion, so that, in fact, the forces engaged upon either side, at any one
time and place, were very nearly equal.
Hooker began his attack early in the morning of the 17th, the on-
Thc Battle set falling upon Jackson, who was speedily forced back, al-
Of Antietam. ^]loug]1 reeiiforced by Hood. Mansfield soon followed, and
by nine o'clock Hooker thought he had gained a great victory, and
sent word to Simmer to advance. A few minutes later Mansfield
was killed, and Hooker, wounded in the foot, was borne almost sense
less from the field. McLaws and Anderson, who had just come up
from Harper's Ferry with 7,000 men, — half the number of their di
visions — hurried up, and by the time that Simmer reached the field
the corps of Hooker and Mansfield were streaming away in rout.
They took little further part in the action. The arrival of Simmer's
strong corps wrought an immediate change. Lee now brought to
this point every available man, stripping his right until there were
hardly 2,500 men to withstand Burnside's 14,000 who lay idly in
their front. The battle raged fiercely with varying fortunes, each
side alternately gaining or losing a little ground at one point or an
other. The fighting ceased about the middle of the afternoon, both
sides being utterly exhausted. At the close both parties held nearly
the ground which they had occupied when Simmer entered the fight.
All this time Porter's corps and two thirds of that of Franklin,
25,000 in all — more by half than Sumner had — were within can
non-shot, but were not sent into action.
Burnside was to attack the enemy's right as soon as he received
orders so to do. McClellan says that such order was sent at eight
BATTLE OF ANTIETAM.
503
o'clock. Burnside says that it did not reach him until ten. Be this
as it may, he did not cross the Antietam until one o'clock.
i TIP! T Burnside's
Inen there was another delay or two hours; and it was advance and
nearly four o'clock when his real attack began. The heights
opposite Sharpsburg were carried, and a position gained from which
the Confederate lines might be enfiladed. At this moment A. P.
Hill came up from Harper's Ferry, bringing with him 4,000 men,
who had marched seventeen miles that day. Hill flung himself into
the fight; but it was over before he could bring more than half his
men into action. Burnside's corps fled back in wild disorder to the
creek, which they crossed the next morning. In this whole futile
idge at Antietar
Lee's escape.
movement Burnside lost 2,293 killed, wounded, and missing. The
Confederates lost in all about 1,000.
During the night Lee fell back a little, contracting his lines around
Sharpsburg. McClellan would not renew the action next
day. The reason he gave was, that " the national cause
could afford no risk of defeat. One battle lost, and almost all would
have been lost. Lee's army might then march as it pleased on Wash
ington, Baltimore, Philadelphia, or Xew York, and nowhere east of
the Alleghanies was there another organized force able to resist its
march."' But during the 18th he was joined by the divisions of
Couch and Humphreys, 14,000 strong, and he proposed to attack the
504 NORTHERN VIRGINIA AND MARYLAND. [CHAP. XIX.
next morning. But the next morning there was no enemy to attack.
During the night Lee had quietly slipped away, and was safely across
the Potomac.
The battle of Antietam, says Lee, " was fought with less than
Forces and 40,000 men." All told, he had, first and last, about 40,000 ;
of these all except half of A. P. Hill's 4,000 were hotly en
gaged. McClellan had 82,000, of whom 57,000 were engaged, succes
sively and in "driblets." The entire Federal loss was 2,010 killed,
9,416 wounded, and 1,043 missing, — 12,469 in all. Including the
losses at Crampton's and Turner's Gaps, it was 14,970. The Con
federate loss is a matter of question. As summed up in Lee's Report,
there were 1,567 killed, and 8,274 wounded, — 10,291, besides the
missing ; but a collation of the subsidiary reports appended shows at
least 2,000 killed, 10,000 wounded, and 5,000 missing, — 17,000 in
all. Including the losses at Turner's and Crampton's Gaps, the en
tire loss must have been at least 20,000.
As a mere passage of arms, the battle of Antietam was quite inde-
Prociama- cisive. But at the North it was looked upon as a great
e'inau°cfipa- victory. It emboldened President Lincoln to put forth his
premonitory proclamation for the abolition of slavery, which
he had prepared months before, announcing that if on the 1st of the
ensiling January the rebellion should still continue, he should in vir
tue of his power as Commander-in-chief of the Army and Navy of
the United States, order and declare that all persons held as slaves in
the rebellious sections, "are and henceforth shall be free,'' and that
" the Executive Government of the United States, including the mil
itary and naval powers thereof, will recognize and maintain the free
dom of such persons And such persons of suitable condition
will be received into the armed service of the United States."
The act had been waited for by the loyal people of the North with
impatience and anxiety — impatience, that this legitimate war meas
ure should be resorted to ; anxiety lest the gathering of this righteous
fruit of the rebellion should be endangered by too long delay. It
rendered compromise no longer possible, and struck from the hands
of the Northern allies of the rebels the only effective appeal that
could be made to the South for pence. Slavery could only be pre
served by Southern independence; the war must be prosecuted to the
absolute submission of the South or the overthrow of the National
Government. Henceforth the war was to be carried on for that end
always so clear in the Southern mind, but, up to this time, rather
shrunk from, not even universally comprehended at the North — a
slaveholding or a free Republic. But momentous as was the act, it
was no sudden movement. Congress had foreshadowed it in April
1862.]
McCLELLAN'S DISLOYALTY.
505
by passing a bill abolishing slavery, with compensation to the slave
holders, in the District of Columbia ; Mr. Lincoln had given due
warning of what might come by recommending Congress, at the be
ginning of the session, to pass a bill offering compensation to any
State which would voluntarily free its slaves — an offer which none
of them were wise enough to accept when the bill was passed ; and in
March a new article of war was promulgated, forbidding any officer
in the military or naval service of the United States to use its forces
for the return of fugitive slaves. Even now Mr. Lincoln gave to the
rebels nearly four months for reflection and repentance. At the end
of that time, on the 1st of January, 1863, he "proclaimed liberty
throughout the land."
After crossing the Potomac, Lee fell back to Winchester, where he
had ordered that all who had fallen out in the march to McCieiian's
Maryland should rendezvous. On the 30th of September, delay-
when many thousands of these had come up, his muster rolls showed
nearly 63,000 present, but
only 52,609 " present for
duty." On that day Mc-
Clellan had with him fully
100,000 effective men, be
sides the 73,000 held back
for the protection of Wash
ington.
Once more, as at Harri
son's Landing, the President
visited headquarters to see
for himself the condition of
the army, possibly to find, if
he could, some military rea
son why a general with an
army outnumbering the en
emy two to one, should have
permitted that enemy to put
a river between them un
molested. In plain terms,
the difference between the President and the General was, that Mr.
Lincoln was determined to suppress the rebellion and bring
The Presi-
the rebels to terms ; while McClellan, having the army in dent visits
. c . r i Antietam.
his hands, was determined only to repel an invasion or those
States still remaining in the Union, but otherwise to let the rebels
alone that they might bring the Federal Government to terms.
There seems no other explanation of that extraordinary release of
Edwin M. Stanton.
506 NORTHERN VIRGINIA AND MARYLAND. [CHAP. XIX.
Lee. Had Andrew Jackson been President instead of Abraham Lin
coln, that visit to Antietam would have been signalized by the imme
diate arrest of the General commanding — possibly by his being
brought out from his tent to face a file of soldiers with loaded mus
kets, without the formality of a court-martial. But Mr. Lincoln was
a civilian, not a soldier ; he was not sure how far he could sustain
himself, or how far the country would sustain him in the swift
judgment of martial law; he relied rather — and herein is the key to
what sometimes seemed a perilous hesitation in his policy so
His policy. . . 11-
otten alarming and almost exasperating the ardent loyalists
of the North — he relied rather upon the slower progress of events to
justify with the people his tardier but, when it was pronounced, not
less decisive judgment. The army, he knew, was, in one sense, a
political as well as a military machine; that behind this was a large
body of Northern opponents of the war, composed of those who be
lieved that the next best thing to being a slaveholder was to be a
slaveholder's faithful servant ; that McClellan, because of his posi
tion, had been made the chief of this party ; and that around him, in
the army, had gathered a group of generals who were politicians first
and soldiers afterward. The old-fashioned notion of soldierly fealty
to the Government whose commissions they bore, was discarded by
these men ; they "followed their party," as, when the rebellion broke
out, the traitors among army officers said, we " follow our State." It
was not an enemy in front only, but an enemy in the rear also, that
Mr. Lincoln knew he had to encounter. There were two ways of
dealing with this latter opponent : Andrew Jackson's way, and his
own. He wisely trusted to that he understood.
He needed, therefore, to temporize, to be patient, to trust to the
iustification of events. On the 6th of October McClellan
MrClellan's J
disobedi- was ordered peremptorily to move across the Potomac, give
Lee battle, or pursue him to the South. He did not obey.
Arguments followed orders. They were parried, as the orders were,
with excuses. He wanted supplies of all kinds — clothing, shoes,
horses; above all, he wanted, as he always did from the beginning to
the end, more men. Two to one were not enough for him. He com
plained that his horses were fatigued. " Will you pardon me for
asking," replied Lincoln, "what the horses of your army have done
since the battle of Antietam to fatigue anything?" Meanwhile the
rebel General Stuart, with only 2,000 men, crossed the Potomac,
dashed through town after town in Maryland and Pennsylvania,
made the complete circuit of the Army of the Potomac, and re
joined Lee almost without the loss of a man. Again the President
expostulated and complained of five weeks of inaction. It was No-
1862.]
REMOVAL OF McCLELLAN.
507
vember before his insubordinate General chose to obey — six weeks
after he had permitted Lee to escape. He had with him 100,000
men, besides 15,000 to be left at Harper's Ferry, and the promise
of 20,000 more to be sent from Washington if needed — in all 135,-
000. Lee's muster-rolls ten days before showed that he had present
for duty only 67,805 men.
The roads had been good for some weeks ; the weather was favor
able, and the army moved rapidly down the east side of the Blue
Ridge towards Warrenton. Lee broke up from Winchester and
marched in the same direction, but on the other side of the Blue
Culpepper Court House.
Ridge. Longstreet's corps, now leading, moved the more rapidly.
It turned a spur of the mountains, and passed from the Valley of the
Shenandoah into that of the Rappahannock, and by the time that Mc-
Clellan had massed his forces at Warrenton, Longstreet was before
him at Culpepper, ten miles to the south. Jackson's corps Rcmoval of
was three days' march behind. McClellan thought, or ;if- McClellan-
terwards thought he had thought, that he was ready to attack. But
his removal had been already decided upon. He was ordered to turn
over his command to Burnside, and to repair to Trenton, New Jersey,
there to await further orders.
The command had twice before been offered to Burnside, and had
508 NORTHERN VIRGINIA AND MARYLAND. [CHAP. XIX.
been declined by him. He had said that he did not think himself com-
Bumsidein patent to take command of so large an army ; and, moreover,
command. ]ie ^new iess than any other general of the condition and
capabilities of the force. But the present order was imperative, and
he must obey it. He was directed not only to take command of the
army, but to state what he proposed to do with it. In two days he
presented his plan. Instead of moving towards Richmond by way of
Gordonsville, he proposed to make " a rapid move of the whole force
to Fredericksburg, with a view to a movement upon Richmond from
that point." This plan was accepted, and on the loth of November
the movement was begun, masked by a feint toward Gordonsville.
Lee was not deceived by this feint, but divining the intent of Burn-
side, headed his force toward Fredericksburg. The armies moved
down the Rappahannock, but upon opposite sides, Lee upon the south
side, Burnside upon the north. Burnsitle had several days the start,
and on the 17th his advance, under Sumner, reached Falmouth, where
it had been purposed to cross the Rappahannock to Fredericksburg.
But when he reached that point he found that the bridges had all
been destroyed, and the pontoons which were to have been there had
not been sent. Before these came, Lee had brought clown his whole
force, now numbering about 80,000 ; had fortified the heights, and
was awaiting the further movements of Burnside, whose force num
bered fully 125,000.
The pontoons finally arrived, and on the 10th of December Bnrn-
Fredericks- s'l^e decided to lay down several bridges and cross the river.
It was no part of Lee's plan seriously to obstruct the pas
sage. He preferred to let the enemy cross, and attack him in his
strong position. The passage of the river was made on the llth and
12th, followed on Sunday, the 13th, by the disastrous battle of Fred
ericksburg. This was a vain effort to carry an almost impregnable
position, held by an almost equal force. Beginning at ten
Fredericks- o'clock in the morning, attempt after attempt was made to
force the Confederate lines at several points. Here and
there the assailants for a brief space won a little ground, but were
soon hurled back. The hottest fighting took place at the foot of
Marye's Hill, just behind Fredericksburg. This hill, crowned by
batteries, falls off abruptly to a sunken road, faced on the city side
by a low stone wall. This sunken road, which really formed a ditch
for the defence of the fortress hill, was the decisive point of the bat
tle. The first assault upon Marye's Hill was committed to the di
visions of French and Hancock of Sumner's grand corps, "two of
the most gallant officers in the army," says Sumner, "• and two divis
ions which had never turned their backs to the enemy." The front
1862.]
BATTLE OF FREDERICKSBURG.
509
to be carried was so narrow that scarcely more than a brigade could
be brought upon it at once. Brigade after brigade rushed forward
only to be swept back so rapidly that it seemed like a single assault.
Something like 10,000 men took part in it, and it lasted two hours
and more ; of these fully 4,000 were killed and wounded. Twice
as many men could not have carried the hill in face of the forces
opposed to them.
Burnside, from across the river, had watched the fight. " That
crest," he said to Hooker, "must be crossed to-night." ..Thefinalag_
Hooker crossed the river, and consulted with Hancock, sault
French, and others, all of whom, with a single exception, thought that
The Wall at Fredericksburg.
it could not be done. But Burnside was inflexible, and ordered the
fresh assault to be made. Night was fast approaching when Hooker
was ready to attack. He began by a fierce artillery fire, hoping to
make "a hole sufficiently large for a forlorn hope to enter." It made
no more impression, he says, " than if it had been made against a
mountain of rock." The Confederate fire from the crest had ceased,
their ammunition being exhausted. At sunset Hooker ordered
Humphreys, with 4,000 men, to " make the assault with empty
muskets, for there was no time to load and fire." Looking upward
from the base of the hill, all that they could see was a steep slope,
with a low stone wall, near the base. The sunken road below was
quite invisible, and they knew nothing of its existence. But in
510 NORTHERN VIRGINIA AND MARYLAND. [CHAP. XIX.
it troops were standing four deep, and perfectly protected from any
fire. Humphreys pushed to within a few rods of this road, when his
column was met by a solid sheet of lead and fire, before which it
melted away like a snow-drift before a jet of steam. The whole
affair lasted barely a quarter of an hour, but in that brief space out
of 4,000 assailants fully 1,700 were killed or wounded, while not a
man of the enemy appears to have been touched. Then, says Hooker,
grimly, " finding that I had lost as many men as my orders required
me to lose, I suspended the attack/'
The battle was over. The Confederates lay upon their arms that
Resume and night, expecting the attack to be renewed in the morning.
To Lee the assault seemed feeble, and to repel it he had not
used more than a third of his force. Owing partly to the nature of
the ground, and partly, it appears, to misapprehension of orders,
Burnside had not brought into the fight more than a third of the
100,000 who had crossed the river. He proposed to renew the at
tack on the following morning, and gave orders to that effect. But
every one of his officers, including Sumner, who, as he says, " was
always in favor of an advance when it was possible," was opposed
to it ; so at nightfall, he decided to recross the river. The losses
at Fredericksburg were very disproportionate. As officially reported
on both sides, the Confederate loss was 595 killed, 4,001 wounded,
and 653 missing, — 5,409 in all; the Federal loss was 1,152 killed,
9,101 wounded, and 3,234 missing — 13,487 in all. But according to
Halleck's report, of a later date, about 1,200 of those set down as
missing returned to their commands, thus reducing the absolute Fed
eral loss to about 12,500. Probably the actual number of disabling
casualties on either side did not exceed half of the reported losses.
A fortnight after the battle of Fredericksburg, Burnside planned
another attack by turning the Confederate lines, instead of
paign in the assaulting them in front. The movement was actually
begun, when on the 30th of December orders were received
from the President that no general movement should be made until
he had been informed of it. The reason of this was, that grave
dissensions had sprung up among the leading officers of the army.
Finally, the President permitted Burnside to make his proposed at
tempt. This " Campaign in the mud " lasted only three days, from
January 19th to January 21st, 1863, when it was abandoned as hope
less, and the army fell back to its old position opposite Fredericksburg.
Meanwhile the dissensions between Burnside and many of his
Bumside's leading officers increased day by day. He resolved to vin-
•eaignation. dieate ]jjs authority, and drew up a general order, dismiss
ing some of them from the service, and relieving others from their
1863.]
BURNSIDE SUPERSEDED BY HOOKER.
511
Hooker
placed in
command.
commands. Among those to be dismissed was Hooker, who was
declared to be " a man unfit to hold an important commission
during a crisis like the present." This order could be made valid
only by the sanction of the President. Burnside made
that the condition of his retaining command. If it were
not sanctioned, he would resign. Lincoln refused to sanc
tion the order, and placed Hooker in command of that army in
which Burnside had declared him unfit to hold a commission.
Burnside supposed that his removal from the command was equiv
alent to his retirement from service. The President wisely thought
otherwise. If Burnside was not equal to a first place, he was well
qualified for a second. Several were offered to him, and finally, it
was settled that he should have
the command of the Department
of the Ohio, taking with him his
own corps, then known as the
Ninth. Sumner, at the same
time, and at his own request, was
relieved from duty, and appoint
ed to the command of the De
partment of the Missouri, which,
however, he did not live to reach.
Franklin was also relieved.
The discord that prevailed in
the army was not confined to it.
Burnside's want of success de
lighted McClellan's friends, the
" Copperhead " party of the
North, as much as it disappointed
and alarmed all those who were
earnest for a vigorous prosecution of the war. The traitorous and
the faint-hearted worked, whether consciously or not, to the same end,
and unquestionably the influence that discouraged hope and para
lyzed exertion did far more mischief than open opposition to the war.
The universal indignation among all who believed in a war for free
dom arid the nation, made open treachery detested. It was the
other class that was feared — the class that was ready to
•i- -» r o -i • Movement
purchase peace at the price ot compromise. Mr. reward, it against the
was feared, belonged to that class ; and a movement was
made at this time by some of the leading Senators at Washington, to
induce Mr. Lincoln to remove him from the office of Secretary of
State. The Secretary anticipated the project by offering his resig-
Ambrose E. Burnside
512
NORTHERN VIRGINIA AND MARYLAND. [CHAP. XIX.
nation. Mr. Chase immediately followed his example. Mr. Lincoln
rejected both. These are the outside facts. The inner facts are not
yet accessible.
It was in the course of this autumn that the Emperor of France
attempted to induce England and Russia to join with him in an offer
of mediation between the belligerents, which he meant should lead
to an enforced termination of the war. The other powers refused
to interfere, and the Emperor thereupon sought for some other way
of attaining his end. It was suspected that Count Mercier,
of count the French Minister at Washington, was in correspond-
Mercier.
ence with the leading men of the anti-war party at the
North. Naturally not a little indignation was felt at an interference
on the part of a foreign gov
ernment intended to strengthen
that party at home which was
virtually in alliance with the
rebels, and bitterly opposed to
the Administration. In a let
ter which has never been pub
lished, — of the existence of
which there were rumors at
the time, and some discussion
was aroused as to its character,
— Mr. Horace Greeley wrote
to Count Mercier : u You have
honored me with a frank con
fidence, which I endeavored to
reciprocate. I presume all, or
nearly all, Mr. Jewett says
with regard to the desirability
of your having a large discre
tion accorded you as to the time of further and decisive action on
your part and on that of your government, was uttered by me in pri
vate conversation." What this Mr. Jewett had said was probably
contained in a letter of his own to Count Mercier, in explanation of
which the letter of Mr. Greeley was written. It may be that the
archives of the French Legation at Washington will never give up
the interesting evidence of the correspondence between Count Mercier
and those citizens who were so ready to welcome an influence that
might seriously embarrass the Administration. But the object of the
French Minister seems to have been to so concentrate the opposition
to the war — whether that opposition came from servility to the South
or fear of it — as to compel the surrender of the Administration.
Salmon P. Chase
1863.] DUPLICITY OF LOUIS NAPOLEON. 513
The popular instinct, that any interference from abroad was,
from the very nature of the case, in aid of the rebellion, and hostile
to the continued existence of the nation, was unerring. It was not
known then, however, as has since been revealed, that the worst and
most dangerous enemy in Europe to the United States was
c • • • i /-( Duplicity of
Louis Napoleon. His professions of friendship to the Gov- Louis Napo-
. . , leon.
eminent were profuse. But a partial examination only
of the confused mass of rebel archives, now deposited in the War
Department at Washington, has disclosed, in letters from the rebel
Ambassadors, Mason and Slidell, the utter hollowness and hypocrisy
of those professions.1 It was hoped that the distress which the want
of American cotton had produced in England, and the promise of
free trade with the Southern States, which it was a part of Mason
and Slidell's errand to offer, would prove an irresistible pressure upon
the English Ministry. It was due more to the caution than to any
friendly feeling of that government, that Louis Napoleon failed to
induce it to join with him in measures which would, and he meant
should, destroy the American Union. He dreaded its potver, and he
sought its ruin. When that was done, he proposed to command the
Gulf of Mexico by establishing a French post in Florida; and he
seems to have had a dream of reestablishing a French colonial sys
tem on this continent by detaching Texas, and possibly Louisiana,
from the Southern Confederacy. He attempted to get unofficial
representations — which, because they were unofficial, Lord John
Russell declined to receive — before the English Government, of his
strong desire that France and England should unite in acknowl
edging the independence of the Southern States ; and the fear of un
dertaking alone a war with the United States seems to have been
the only consideration which deterred him from granting the recog
nition for which the rebel Ambassadors labored so earnestly, and,
at one time, so hopefully. His efforts to induce England find Russia
to interfere with a proposition for a six months' armistice were made
on behalf of the South, in the hope of ending both the war and the
Union ; and when he offered his sole mediation, three months after
ward, it was done in the same spirit and with the same purpose.
Had not New Orleans been taken at the time it was, it was consid
ered by Mr. Slidell quite probable that the Emperor, finding that the
English Ministry were deaf to his suggestions, would have ventured
upon recognizing the Confederacy upon his sole responsibility. He
regretted that the rebels were without a navy, and was quite willing
to connive at the use of French ship-yards and ports for the building
and equipping of rebel ships, if it were done under a false pretence.
1 See North American Review, October, 1879.
33
514
NORTHERN VIRGINIA AND MARYLAND. [CHAP. XIX.
It was with Ins sanction that seven war vessels — four corvettes like
the Alabama, and three iron-clad rams — were built on Confederate
account at Bordeaux and Nantes. It was only by accident that Mr.
Dayton, the American Minister, discovered their destination, and
demanded that they be detained. The Emperor's professions of
friendship made it necessary to comply with this demand. And
herein lay the difference in the conduct of France and England.
The English Ministry made no pretences of sympathy with the
North ; they permitted rebel cruisers to be built in English ship
yards ; English colonial ports were their harbors ; it was there they
were fitted and refitted, and thence sailed to prey upon American
commerce. English blockade
runners supplied the rebels with
munitions of war and articles of
commerce, and, so far as she
dared to be, England was the
open friend and ally of the in
choate slaveholding confedera
cy ; subjecting herself to no
other restraint than the keeping
so far within the lines of a pro
fessed neutrality as to escape
responsibility by war for her
enmity to the United States.
The time was Avell chosen by
M. Mercier to enter into corre
spondence with the disaffected
and the timid. The military
events of the year had greatly
depressed the loyal people of
the North, and in an equal de
gree excited the hopes of the anti-war Democrats, who meant to save
the Union, if it could be saved at all, by concessions to the South
which even the slaveholders would not reject. The elections of the
year seemed to show an increase of the anti-war feeling, though in
reality, so far as the Republican vote was concerned, they only
showed that there was wide-spread dissatisfaction and impatience at
the way the war was conducted. The inevitable result, however, was
a gain for the Democratic party in many places, especially in New
York, where the Governor elected was one of those who were ready
to do anything, except take up arms, to aid in the subjection of the
Northern people to Southern rule. The French Emperor's offer of
mediation, though promptly rejected, undoubtedly served to strengthen
traitors and to make the timid more afraid.
Gideon Welies.
CHAPTER XX.
OPERATIONS IN THE WEST, 1862.
POSITION IN THE MISSISSIPPI VALLEY. — CAPTURE OF FORT HENRY. — CAPTURE OF
FOHT DOXELSON. NASHVILLE ABAXDOXED. NEW MADRID AXD ISLAXD NUMBER
TEX. — POPE'S CAXAL. — FORT PILLOW AXD MEMPHIS. — HALLECK AND GRAXT. —
BATTLE OF SIIILOH, OR PITTSBURG LANDING. — CAPTURE OF CORINTH. — BRAGG'S
MOVEMENT INTO KENTUCKY. — BATTLE OF PERRYVILLE. — BATTLES OF IUKA AND
CORINTH. — BATTLE OF STONE RIVER. — VICKSBURG. — GRANT'S PLANS. — HOLLY
SPRINGS. — BEGINNING OF THE SIEGE OF VICKSBURG.
PRESIDENT LINCOLN'S peremptory war order of January 27, 1862,
directed that, on or before February 22, there should be a ^ffairs in
general movement of the land and naval forces against the the Westi
enemy. Among those particularly specified were the Army of the
Potomac, the army and flotilla near Cairo in Illinois, and the naval
force in the Gulf of Mexico. How the execution of this order was
delayed by the Army of the Potomac, has already been told. Some
time before this, General Halleck had been placed in command of
what was styled the Department of the Missouri, including Missouri,
Iowa, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Illinois, Arkansas, and that part of Ken
tucky west of the Cumberland Mountains, his headquarters being at
St. Louis. This department was divided into several districts, that
of Cairo, at the junction of the Ohio and the Mississippi, being
placed under General U. S. Grant. General Buell was in command
of the Department of the Ohio, including Ohio, Michigan, Indiana,
Tennessee, and a part of Kentucky. Kosecrans was left in command
of the Department of West Virginia. For a time all these armies,
including that of the Potomac, were under the control of McClellan.
The rebels held that Kentucky naturally belonged to them, and
they had taken armed possession of a part of it, and held a strong
line across the southern portion. The eastern end of this line was
the fortified camp at Bowling Green, near the Tennessee border ;
thence it ran westward to Columbus. The Cumberland and Tennes
see rivers afford easy access into the heart of Tennessee, and to pre
vent the passage of them by the national forces, works had been
erected a score of miles above their mouths — Fort Henry on the
Tennessee, and the stronger Fort Donelson on the Cumberland.
516
OPERATIONS IX THE WEST, 1862.
[CHAP. XX.
These formed the centre of the rebel line. If they were taken, the
whole line from Bowling Green to Columbus would be untenable.
This enterprise was committed to Grant, aided by the flotilla of
gunboats under Commodore Foote. This army was ready
to move three weeks before the time set for the general ad
vance. On the 80th of January Grant moved from Cairo, with
a force of 17,000 men ; on the 6th of February he appeared in the
rear of Fort Henry, the actual reduction of which was committed to
the gunboats, with the expectation that the land force would be able
to cut off the retreat of the garrison. After a sharp cannonade of
Fort Donelson.
an hour, the guns of the fort were silenced. General Tilghman, who
commanded Fort Henry, saw from the first that he could not hold it.
" My object," he says, " was to save the main body by delaying mat
ters as long as possible." He sent off the bulk of the garrison be
fore the firing actually began, and kept up the defence with less than
a hundred men, of whom he lost twenty-one. The Federal loss was
twenty-nine men, scalded on board the gunboat Essex, whose boiler
was struck by a shot. The garrison, about 3,000 in number, got
safely off to Fort Donelson, about twelve miles distant.
Grant and the gunboats at once moved up the Cumberland to that
Fortoonei- ^ort;' Grant had at the outset barely 15,000 men. But
when operations fairly began he had received about as many
more. The garrison of the fort when at its highest point numbered
1862.] CAPTURP: OF FORT DONELSON. 517
a little more than 20,000. On the water side this work was very
strong, mounting sixty-five guns. On the land side, from which no
attack had been anticipated, the works were weak, but the coun
try was difficult for an attacking army. The fort itself stood upon a
bluff about one hundred feet high, and occupied an area of one hun
dred acres. On the right and left were two swampy creeks, now
flooded. In the rear the country was rugged and heavily timbered.
The trees had been felled so as to make a formidable abatis. The
commander of the fort was General Floyd, not long before Secretary
of War under Buchanan. On the evening of the 12th, Grant made
an unsuccessful attack upon a battery commanding a road by which
he was trying to move. Up to this time the weather had been warm
for the month of February, but during this night a fierce storm of
sleet and snow set in, and the thermometer fell to 12° above zero.
The men on both sides, without fires or tents, bivouacked upon the
battle-field. The next day six gunboats came up the river, and at
three o'clock in the afternoon opened upon the water-front of the
fort. The advantage was wholly on the side of the fort, whose
plunging fire told heavily upon the boats. TAVO were disabled, and
drifted helplessly down the river, and the others soon followed. They
had lost fifty-four men.
But on the land side the assailants were slowly gaining positions
that would soon render the fort untenable. It only remained for the
garrison to endeavor to cut its way out. The attempt was bravely
made before daybreak 011 the 14th, and for a time promised success.
Grant had gone down the river to consult with Foote, who had been
wounded. Coming upon the field at nine o'clock, he says, " I found
that either side wras ready to give way if the other showed a bold
front. I took the opportunity, and ordered an advance of the whole
line," the gunboats being at the same time requested to make a vig
orous demonstration. The attack was successful at every point.
During the night a council of war was held at the rebel headquar
ters. All the commanders agreed that there was nothing left but to
surrender. " But," said Floyd, " I cannot surrender, you know the
position in which I stand." He turned the command over to Pillow,
making it a condition that he should be allowed to take his own bri
gade across the river, there being barely boats enough for that pur
pose. Pillow turned the command over to Buckner, and then crossed
the river in a sco\v and escaped. At daylight Grant was ready for
the assault. He was anticipated by a message from Buckner propos
ing the appointment of commissioners to agree upon terms of capit
ulation, and requesting an armistice for that purpose. Grant re
plied, " No terms except unconditional and immediate surrender can
518
OPERATIONS IN THE WEST, 1862.
[CHAP. XX.
be accepted. I propose to move immediately upon your works."
Buckner replied, u The distribution of the forces under my command,
incident to an unexpected change of commanders, and the over
whelming force under your command, compel me, notwithstanding
the brilliant success of the Confederate arms yesterday, to accept the
ungenerous and unchivalric terms which you propose." When, how
ever, Grant came to name his precise terms, they were far from being
ungenerous. All prisoners were allowed to keep their personal bag
gage, and officers were to retain their side-arms. The prisoners num
bered about 15,000. So many men had never before laid down their
arms at any one time upon this continent. The entire Federal loss
Bridge over the Cumberland at Nashville.
was 2,041, of whom 425 were killed. The rebel loss could not have
been less.
While the fate of Fort Donelson was pending, General Albert Sid
ney Johnston withdrew from Bowling Green to Nashville, where he
awaited the issue ; for Nashville was looked upon as a place of great
importance, and came near being chosen, instead of Richmond, as
the capital of the Confederacy. On the 15th, he received a despatch
from Pillow announcing a victory. u On the honor of a soldier," said
Pillow, " the day is ours." On Sunday morning the people of Nash
ville were gathered in the churches, offering thanks for success. But
before the morning service was over the news came that Fort Don
elson had surrendered, and the national forces were approaching.
1862.]
NEW MADRID AND ISLAND NUMBER TEN.
519
Island Num-
The berTen-
Johnston forthwith evacuated the defenceless city, which in a few
days was taken possession of by Buell. Columbus, on the Missis
sippi, was almost simultaneously abandoned by the rebels, who spiked
their guns, and flung them into the river, falling back to Island Num
ber Ten, thirty miles below, where strong works had been erected.
These it was hoped would command the passage of the river.
The Mississippi here makes a sharp bend to the northwest, running
in that reverse direction for about a dozen miles, when it
turns again to the south, thus making an ox-bow,
island, near the Tennessee shore, is at the southern extremity of this
bend. New Madrid, on the
Missouri side, is at the north
ern extremity, where consider
able works had been erected by
the rebels. They had here
also several gunboats, which
commanded the adjacent low
country. General Pope was
sent by Halleck from St. Louis
with 20,000 men to dislodge
them. This he did early in
March, the troops at New Mad
rid fleeing so hastily to Island
Number Ten, that they left
behind them thirty-three guns,
much ammunition, and tents
sufficient for 10,000 men.
Meanwhile Foote, with seven
teen gunboats, came down the Andrew H Foote.
river, and, on the loth of
March, a vigorous but ineffectual bombardment was begun. This
was kept up with little intermission for three weeks. Beauregard,
who was now in general supervision of operations in this region, says
that during this bombardment the Federals threw into the works
3,000 shells, and burned fifty tons of gunpowder, without doing any
damage to the batteries, and killing only one man. Commodore
Foote speaks much to the same purport. " Island Number Ten,'' he
says, " is harder to conquer than Columbus, its shores being lined
with forts, each fort commanding the one above it."
So long as Pope was on the Missouri side of the river he could do
nothing to aid in the capture of the island, whose works Pope.g ca.
could be attacked only upon the reverse or land side. To ual
cross to Tennessee it was necessary to bring transports to convey his
520 OPERATIONS IN THE WEST, 1862. [CHAP. XX.
men over, and gunboats to sweep the opposite shore, which was
crowned with batteries. For this purpose he undertook to cut a canal
across the head of the peninsula formed by the bend of the river.
This canal was twelve miles long, half of the way running through a
swampy forest, where hundreds of fallen trees, some of them three
feet in diameter, had to be sawn off four feet under water before
they could be removed. The work was completed in nineteen days.
The transports passed through this canal ; and on the 6th of April the
whole force was taken over. Two days after, they were upon the un
defended rear of the island, which was at once surrendered. Nearly
7,000 prisoners were taken, besides a floating battery which had been
brought up from New Orleans, one hundred heavy siege guns, twenty-
four pieces of light artillery, several thousand small arms, and a great
amount of ammunition and supplies. This brilliant exploit was ac
complished without the loss of a single man. To it Pope undoubt
edly owed his appointment to the command of the Army of Virginia.
The capture of Island Number Ten opened the passage of the Mis
sissippi down to Fort Pillow, one hundred miles below, and
I'ort Pillow. r . .
forty miles above the important position of Memphis, at the
junction of two great systems of railways. No attempt had been.
made to fortify Memphis itself, for it was believed that no hostile
fleet could reach it from below, and Fort Pillow was thought sufficient
to guard it from above. But hardly had Island Number Ten been
surrendered when Pope began to descend the river, and on the 13th
of April he was close upon Fort Pillow, which mounted forty heavy
guns, was garrisoned by 6,000 men, and protected on the river by
nine armored gunboats. On the 17th Pope was just ready to make
the assault, when he was suddenly recalled to take part in a general
movement which Halleck was preparing for near Corinth, Mississippi.
The Federal gunboats, however, remained behind, and on the 10th of
May the rebel gunboats came out from the shelter of Fort Pillow,
and attacked. In a brief time half of them were disabled or de
stroyed. The fort was retained by the rebels until June 4th, when
it was abandoned.
The next clay, Commodore Davis, who had succeeded Foote, steamed
rapture of down to Memphis, his fleet increased by four rams, con-
Memphis. structed under the supervision of Colonel Charles Ellet.
On the 6th eight rebel gunboats and rams came out to meet them.
The contest was in ramming rather than by firing. The Queen of the
Went ran down the rebel General Lovell, and sank her ; a few min
utes later the Queen was struck by a rebel ram, and disabled. This
ram was in a few minutes run into by the Monarch, and sank. The
result of the whole was, that of the rebel flotilla, seven vessels were
1862.]
HALLECK AND GRANT.
521
destroyed, one was captured, and one escaped by superior speed. This
strange combat was watclied by thousands of spectators, who lined
the bluffs, and had come out in the confident expectation of seeing
the entire destruction of the national flotilla. The next day Mem
phis was surrendered by the civil authorities.
The campaign of Shiloh had been begun, and well-nigh decided,
while that in Virginia hung in almost even balance. Fort Haiieckand
Donelson had hardly fallen when Halleck, from St. Louis, Grailt-
ordered Grant to move rapidly up the Tennessee River, to take
possession of important points in railway communications. Buell,
then at Nashville, asked Grant to come up the Cumberland, and
Memphis.
consult with him. Halleck was wroth at what he looked upon as
Grant's disobedience of orders, and telegraphed to him, " Why don't
you obey orders ? Turn over the command of the Tennessee expedi
tion to General C. F. Smith, and remain yourself at Fort Henry;"
intimating also that the authorities at Washington had it in mind
to put him under arrest. Grant explained matters somewhat to the
satisfaction of Halleck, who asked the authorities at Washington to
let the subject drop ; but the order appointing Smith to command
the Tennessee expedition was not rescinded. Grant, in turning over
the command to Smith, asked to be relieved wholly. No action
seems to have been taken upon this request. General Charles F.
Smith had given evidence of high military capacity, but his career
522 OPERATIONS IN THE WEST, 1862. [CHAP. XX.
was soon closed by what seemed a very slight accident. In stepping
on board a boat at Fort Donelson, he had suffered a mere scratch ;
but gangrene soon set in, and he died on the 25th of April. For
some time before he had been incapable of duty, and Grant found
himself again in actual command of this Tennessee expedition, with
the preliminary arrangements of which he had not much to do.
When Johnston abandoned Nashville he at first fell back to Mur-
pittsburg freesborough, and then turned southwestward to the little
village of Corinth, where Beauregard was concentrating
all the available Confederate forces from the South and Southwest.
Bragg was brought up from Florida,- Polk from the Mississippi, and
Johnston from Murfreesborough. Before the end of March there
were 45.000 men at or near Corinth, and Price and Van Dorn were
on their way with 30,000 more from Arkansas. Sherman, who now
first becomes prominent, had been ordered to join the Tennessee ex
pedition. Buell, with 40,000 men, was ordered from Nashville to
cooperate with this general movement. Smith's army, 30,000 strong,
on seventy transports, went to Pittsburg Landing, two hundred and
twenty miles above the mouth of the river. Sherman, with a quick
military eye, fixed upon this place as the best spot from which to op
erate, and possession was taken of it. Pittsburg Landing occupies a
bluff, stretching back to a plateau half a mile long, and eighty feet
high, with creeks falling into the Tennessee above and below it. This
hitherto obscure spot is historic as the scene of the first great
battle in the civil war, fought in the open field. Smith's order to
Sherman was to take up a position on this plateau, far enough from
the river to leave room for an army of 100,000 men behind him. This
was the last order given by Smith, for about the middle of March
his illness compelled him to surrender the command to Grant.
On this plateau, two miles from the Landing, stood a log meeting-
Battle of house known as Shiloh Church, which has given name to
the battle fought near it. That the national army was
fairly taken by surprise, cannot well be doubted. The manner in
which the divisions were posted on the border of the plateau shows
that there was no anticipation of an attack from Corinth, thirty miles
away, where it was not supposed that the enemy were in very great
strength. Grant had now not less than 38,000 men on his side of the
Tennessee, and Buell, with 40,000 more, was a few miles distant on
the other side. Beauregard and Johnston, who had hardly 40,000
effective men, attempted to crush Grant's army before it could be
joined by Buell's. They moved from Corinth on the 3d of April.
On the 5th a severe storm set in, which delayed the attack till the
next day, the troops encamping on the wet ground, without fires,
about three quarters of a rnile from the Federal pickets.
1862.]
BATTLE OF SHILOH.
523
At dawn on Sunday morning, Hardee's corps fell upon the out
lying divisions of the Federal army, who were at once driven in.
Grant was at that time across the river, whither he had gone to have
a consultation with Buell. He recrossed, and at eight o'clock came
upon what looked like a lost battle. Sherman, to whom the honors
of this day's fighting belong, barely succeeded in preventing an abso
lute rout. By noon the entire army had been driven from their
camps, and were crowded into a space of not more than four hun
dred acres upon the very verge of the bluff overlooking the Landing,
Pittsburg Landing.
towards which they were rushing in utter confusion. At two o'clock
success seemed within the rebel grasp. About this time Johnston
was shot through the leg by a rifle ball, which severed an artery.
Nobody was at hand who knew enough to stop the flow of blood, and
he died in a few minutes. Beauregard, nominally second in com
mand, was in feeble health, and two hours passed before he was
found ; and before he could get his force well in hand it was too late.
Grant, at this moment, manifested that indomitable will which is his
military characteristic. There was still one hope, and so long as
everything was not lost, he never believed that anything was so ab
solutely lost that it might not be regained. Before the rebels could
reach that part of the plateau where their enemy stood at bay, they
had to cross a deep ravine with slippery sides and a bottom full of
524 OPERATIONS IN THE WEST, 1862. [CiiAi>. XX.
water. Grant had hastily improvised some slight earthworks upon
its opposite brink, and had got together half a hundred light guns,
mere fragments of his batteries, of which most had been captured.
Two gunboats had also been posted so that their fire swept this
ravine. The Confederates dashed down the bank, and tried vainly
to climb the slope on the other side. They were swept away by the
hot fire in their front, and by the shells from the gunboats. The
utmost human strength and courage were of no avail here, and as
night was falling the rebels gave up the assault, and Grant was left
master of this last part of the field. Still the rebels held the entire
ground over which there had been much contest, and Beauregard
was not altogether unwarranted in reporting that, u At six o'clock in
the afternoon we were in possession of all the enemy's encampments
but one. Nearly all his field artillery, about thirty flags, colors, and
standards, and over 3,000 prisoners — all the substantial fruits of a
complete victory, such as have rarely followed the most successful
battles. The remnant of his army had been driven in utter disorder
to the immediate vicinity of Pittsburg Landing, under the shelter of
the heavy guns of his iron-clad gunboats, and we remained undis
puted masters of his well-selected, admirably provided cantonments."
But during the night changes had been made. General Lewis
Wallace, with 5,000 men, who had been prevented from joining in
the action, had come upon the ground. Three divisions of Buell's
army, 22,000 strong, had crossed the river, so that after all his losses
Grant had nearly 50,000 men. The rebels had been greatly dis
organized by their apparent victory. Bnigg says, "In a dark, stormy
night, the commanders found it impossible to find and assemble their
troops, each body or fragment bivouacking where the night overtook
them." In the morning they had got together fewer than 80,000 men.
Grant was prepared to take the offensive early on Monday morn-
The battle mg- The attack was made under a cold, drizzling rain,
renewed. ^he enemy were soon forced back from all the ground they
had gained on the preceding day. Their last stand was made in their
centre, Avhere Beauregard was fiercely pressed by Sherman and Wal
lace. Sherman says the musketry fire here was the hottest he had
ever heard. It Avas a great bush-fight, rather than a battle. Wallace
says : " Step by step, from tree to tree, position to position, the rebel
lines^ went bark, never stopping again. The firing was grand and
terrific. To and fro, now in my front, then in Sherman's, rode Gen
eral Beauregard, inciting his troops, and fighting for his fading pres
tige of invincibility. Far along the lines to the left the contest was
raging with equal obstinacy. As indicated by the sounds, the enemy
were retiring everywhere. Cheer after cheer rang through the
1862.]
MITCHELL'S EXPEDITION.
525
woods, and every man felt that the day was ours." At last Beaure-
gard ordered a retreat. " Don't let this be converted into a rout,"
he said to Breckinridge, who commanded the rear-guard.
When the main portion of Buell's army moved from Nashville to
join Grant, his third division, commanded by General O. Mitchcii's
M. Mitchell, was sent to destroy Beauregard's railroad com- exPedition-
munications eastward from Corinth. Mitchell, marching with great
rapidity, surprised Huntsville, Alabama, on the llth of April, severed
the telegraph wires, and sent out parties on trains both east and west,
Corinth
to destroy important bridges. He next proceeded to repair bridges on
the road from Nashville. A force sent against him from Chattanooga
struck the left of his position, at Bridgeport on the Tennessee. In
an engagement on the 23d, the enemy were driven off, and Bridgeport
remained in Mitchell's possession. He afterwards occupied Florence,
Decatur, and Tuscumbia, which compelled Beauregard to move south
ward instead of eastward.
Only slight attempts were made to harass the retreat, and Beaure
gard regained his position at Corinth, whence he sent a
magniloquent despatch to the government at Richmond, the battle of
He had won, he said, "a great and glorious victory," had
" taken from 8,000 to 10,000 prisoners, and thirty-six guns, but
Buell having reenforced Grant, the Confederate army had retired to
Corinth." The alleged number of prisoners is purely mythical.
526 OPERATIONS IN THE WEST, 1862. CHAP. XX.
They amounted to four regiments belonging to Prentiss's division,
cut off and captured early in the fight. The rebel loss during the
two days is stated at 10,699, of whom 1,728 were killed, 8,012
wounded, and 959 missing. The entire Federal loss is summed up at
12,570. Few battles have been more destructive in proportion to the
numbers engaged. There were not far from 100,000 men on both
sides, and about every fifth man was killed or wounded.
As soon as Halleck received tidings of the battle he set out from
capture of St. Louis. Nothing had gone to suit him. He would take
Cormth. charge himself, Grant being formally made second in com
mand, with no actual power or duty. The army at Pittsburg Land
ing was soon rapidly augmented. Pope came from the Mississippi
with 25,000 men, and early in May there were here 100,000 men.
After some minor operations, not without interest in themselves, but
of 110 great general import, Halleck began by slow approaches to
move upon Corinth, where Beauregard, largely reenforced, was sup
posed to have strongly intrenched himself. On the 21st of May,
Halleck's nearest batteries were within three miles of Corinth, but
Beauregard saw that his force was wholly inadequate to oppose that
in front of him. He accordingly evacuated Corinth, destroying
everything of value there, and on the 30th of May, Halleck marched
in. Then he learned that he might have done so at any time for a
fortnight. The dreaded fortifications were a sham, many of the bat
teries being composed of "-Quaker guns," mere logs of wood mounted
to represent cannon.
Farther South, during this month of April, the heaviest blow that
had yet befallen them fell upon the rebels. On the 25th
Ne\\ or- of that month Farragut took New Orleans. He sailed
from Fortress Monroe on the 2d of February, in command
of the largest fleet ever before gathered under the American flag. A
fortnight later a land force of 15,000 men under General B. F.
Butler followed, and all rendezvoused, in due season, at Ship Island
above the mouth of the Mississippi. Thirty miles below New Or
leans were two forts — Jackson and St. Philip — mounting a hundred
guns. Not far below, stretching across the river, was a boom of hulks
and heavy logs connected by chains ; and above this barrier was a
fleet of fifteen vessels, including a formidable iron-clad ram, called
the Manassas, and a floating battery, covered with railroad iron,
called the Louisiana, not yet finished. Jn Farragut' s fleet were six
sloops-of-war, sixteen gunboats, twenty-one mortar-schooners, and
five other vessels. The schooners, commanded by Captain David D.
Porter, each carried one thirteen-inch mortar, and it was expected
that the fire of these mortars, kept up night and day, would drop
FARRAGUT IN THE MAIN-RIGGING.
[/<>w// the original by William /'«£*-.]
1862.] FARRAGUT AT NEW ORLEANS. 527
into the forts such an enormous quantity of their terrible missiles as
would demolish them completely.
It was only with great difficulty that the larger vessels were dragged
over the bar at Southwest Pass into the Mississippi. The Colorado
drew too much water to be taken over at all ; two weeks were spent
in taking over the Pensacola alone. The mortar-schooners and their
convoys went in by Pass a. 1' Outre. The schooners were towed to
their places and moored to the banks, within range of the forts.
Commander Porter had their masts dressed off with bushes, that the
enemy might not be able to distinguish them from the trees that
lined the shore. Fire was opened with the mortars on the 18th of
April, and kept up incessantly for six days and nights, during which
nearly six thousand shells were thrown, each weighing two hundred
and eighty-five pounds. About fifty men in Fort Jackson, on which
the fire was mainly directed, were killed or wounded, but the fort
itself was not materially damaged. Most of the shells sank deeply in
the mud, where their explosion was harmless.
During the bombardment, five fire-rafts, made of fiat-boats piled
with dry wood and smeared with tar and turpentine, were sent down
stream by the rebels to destroy the fleet ; but these were intercepted
by boats, towed to the banks and stranded. One only caused damage
in a collision with two gunboats which were moving out of its track.
Farragut called a council of his captains. He was, he told them,
resolved to run by the forts, and only wanted their advice as to the
best method of doing it. Every device that ingenuity could suggest,
for diminishing the risks of the passage, was resorted to. The crews
of some of the vessels rubbed them over with mud, to render them
less clearly visible ; some whitewashed the decks ; some lined the
bulwarks with hammocks and splinter nettings ; and at the sugges
tion of John W. Moore, engineer of the Richmond, the sheet cables
were hung over the sides of all the vessels, in line with the engines.
Lieutenant C. H. B. Caldwell, in the gunboat Itasca, had gone up
in the night of the 20th, boarded and cut loose one of the hulks of
the boom, that an opening might be made for the passage of the
fleet. In the night of the 23d he went again, to see that the passage
was still open, and on his signal that it was, an hour before midnight,
every ship was cleared for action, but it was half past three before
the fleet was fairly under way. It had been intended to take advan
tage of the moonless night, but blazing rafts on the water and bonfires
on the shore made it as light as day.
Captain Theodorus Bailey, in the Cayuga, led the first division of
the fleet — eight vessels, which passed through the opening, sailed
close to Fort St. Philip, and poured in grape and canister as they
528
OPERATIONS IN THE WEST, 1862.
[CHAP. XX.
The battle
with the
forts and
rebel gun
boats .
went by. A few minutes later the Cayuga found herself in the midst
of eleven rebel gunboats. One of them was set on fire and
went ashore, and another was driven off crippled. The
Varuna and Oneida followed the Cayuga. The Oneida ran
down one of the enemy's vessels, cutting her nearly in
two. The Varuna was run into by two rebel gunboats and was sink
ing, but not till she had crippled one of them, and thrown a shell
into the boiler
of another,
which explod
ed. The other
vessels of this
division came
up more slow-
1 y, sweeping
the bastions
of St. Philip
with a steady
fire, a 11 d re-
ceiving a
heavy fire in
return. The
Mississippi en
countered the
ram Manassas,
and after a se-
v e r e fi g h t ,
boarded h e r,
set her on fire,
and left her
to drift down
s t r e a m and
blow up.
The second
division, led by Farragut's flag-ship Hartford, sailed close to Fort
Jackson, poured in their fire, and then crossed to St. Philip, where
the Hartford grounded on a shoal. At the same time a blazing
raft was pushed against her, and set her on fire. While a portion
of the crew put out the flames, another portion kept her guns stead
ily at work, and she was backed off into deep water. She soon
after encountered a steamer loaded with men, apparently a boarding-
party, which was bearing down upon her ; but a single well-directed
shell exploded in the strange craft, and she went to the bottom. The
remainder of this division, and the third division, led by Captain H.
Caldwell breaking the Chai
18G2.] BUTLER AT NEW ORLEANS. 529
H. Bell in the Scioto, followed. Two of the gunboats became en
tangled in the hulks, and one was disabled by a shot in her boiler.
Each, as she came up, joined in the fight with the rebel fleet, every
vessel of which was either captured or destroyed. This victory cost
the national fleet thirty-seven men killed, and a hundred and forty-
seven wounded. The forts had lost fifty-two men. The loss in the
rebel fleet is unknown.
Captain Bailey, still leading the fleet up stream, captured a rebel
regiment on the bank ; and when several vessels had come up, the
Chalmette batteries, three miles below the city, were reduced, and
New Orleans was at the mercy of Farragut's guns. At Captin.eof
noon of the 25th he sent Captain Bailey ashore, to de- theclt>'-
mand the surrender of the city. General Lovell had withdrawn the
rebel troops intended for its defence, and left it to its fate. The
Mayor attempted to avoid the formality of a surrender, and refused
to haul down the State flag. But Farragut took possession, raised the
Union flag upon the Mint, and soon turned over the city to General
Butler, who had received the surrender of the forts. The Governor
of Louisana fled before the national forces, and issued a proclamation
to the planters, asking them to burn their cotton. This was so far
complied with that 250,000 bales were destroyed.
General Butler's governorship of New Orleans was chiefly notable
for three things : the hanging of a secessionist, the cleaning
of the city, and the issue of what is known as his " woman governor-
order." After Captain Bailey and his guard of marines had
raised the United States flag, a party of ruffians, headed by a gambler,
ascended to the roof, tore down the flag, and dragged it through the
mud of the streets. General Butler brought the leader to trial for
the offence, and, on his conviction, ordered him to be hanged upon a
gallows erected in front of the Mint. Strong efforts were made to
induce the General to pardon him ; but he had gathered admiring
crowds about him in the streets while relating his exploit, had boasted
that the national authorities would not dare to molest him, and defied
the commanding General to arrest him. He was the hero of the rebel
populace, and the question whether the sentence should be carried out,
was simply the question whether the captors of the city should rule
it, or be overridden by the mob. At the same time, General Butler
pardoned six rebel prisoners who had been convicted of violating
their parole.
While the yellow fever was raging at Havana, Nassau, and other
places in the West Indies, General Butler ordered the city Thecity
of New Orleans to be thoroughly cleaned, which was done cleaned-
by 2,000 laborers. The consequence was that — though there were
34
530 OPERATIONS IN THE WEST, 1862. [CHAP. XX.
nearly 20,000 unacclimated persons in the city, — but one case of the
pestilence appeared, and that was brought on a vessel from Havana.
General Order No. 28 — known as " the woman order," issued
The woman ^aj 15th } — subjected General Butler to the severest criti
cism, not only throughout the South, and in Northern Demo
cratic journals, but even from the friends of the rebellion in the British
Parliament. He was described as a u beast," letting loose his brutal
soldiery upon the innocent ladies of New Orleans. A proclamation
issued by Jefferson Davis denounced him as an outlaw, and set a price
upon his head. Whatever may be said of the terms in which Gen
eral Butler chose to convey his order, the conduct of the women at
whom it was aimed, had been so grossly indecent as, among many
other insults, to spit upon Union soldiers when passing through the
streets. It is quite possible that his own brief experience had taught
General Butler the necessity of resorting to extraordinary measures
to govern a populace, who only a year before had seized a Mrs.
Sarah Sanford, a native of New Haven, Connecticut, — but for
some time a teacher in a New Orleans public school, — and because
she was accused of openly condemning slavery, had taken her to a pub
lic square, stripped her naked, and tarred and feathered her in the
presence and with the approbation of a large crowd including many
of the leading people of the town.
After the capture of New Orleans, Farragut's fleet passed up
stream, where for some months he patrolled the river, to prevent the
transmission of supplies for the enemy, drawn from Texas. The bat-
• teries at Vicksburg were the northern limit of this patrol, till on the
28th of June he ran past therewith his fleet — all but three vessels,
which by a misunderstanding of orders failed to pass. The Union
loss from the fire of the batteries was less than fifty, killed and
wounded. No serious damage was done to the vessels.
Coincident with the invasion of Maryland, was a re-invasion of Ken
tucky by Bragg, whose force was now largely increased by conscrip
tion. At the bep'inniup1 of September he had some 00,000
Bra^g's ju_
vasini) ot men, of whom the corps of Hardee and Polk were with
him at Chattanooga, and that of Kirby Smith at Knoxville.
They were directed to march through Kentucky, threatening Cin
cinnati, although their real aim was Louisville. Smith traversed
nearly the whole breadth of Kentucky, until he reached Cynthiana,
1 " As the officers and soldiers of the United States have been subject to repeated insults
from the women (calling themselves ladies) of New Orleans, in return for the, most scrupu
lous non-interference and courtesy on our part, it is ordered that hereafter when any female
shall by word, gesture, or movement, insult or show contempt for any officer or soldier of
the United States, she shall be regarded and held liable to be treated as a woman of the
town plyiiig her avocation."
1862.] BRAGG'S MOVEMENT INTO KENTUCKY. 531
only a few score miles from Cincinnati, when he turned southwest-
ward, and at Frankfort joined Bragg. Buell, who had been near
Nashville, marched in the same direction, also heading for Louisville.
It was an even chance which should first reach the goal. The burn
ing of a bridge over Salt River at Bardstown checked Bragg, and, on
the 25th of September, Buell was before him in Louisville, where he
soon received reinforcements, increasing his army to 100,000 men.
At this moment Bragg hoped that Kentucky would come over to the
Confederacy, or at least would take a neutral position. He issued
a proclamation very like that of Lee to the people of Maryland.
" Kentuckians," said he, "we have come with joyful hopes. Let us
not depart in sorrow, as we shall if we find you wedded to your
present lot. If you prefer Federal rule, show it by your frowns,
and we shall return whence we came. If you choose rather to come
within the folds of our brotherhood, then cheer us with the smiles
of your women, and lend your willing hands to secure yourselves
in your heritage of liberty." But he went further than Lee had
ventured to do in Maryland, for on the 4th of October he named
one Thomas llawes as provisional Governor of Kentucky ; and as
suming that the State was now a part of the Confederacy, he endeav
ored to carry into effect the stringent Confederate conscription law,
which, however, brought him few men.
The real object of Bragg' s invasion had been frustrated by Buell's
forestalling him in the march upon Louisville. But in a i5ragg-8
secondary purpose he had succeeded almost to his heart's Plunder-
desire. Northern Kentucky was rich in what the Confederacy most
lacked, — food and the materials for clothing. For these Bragg plun
dered right and left. Shops, stores, and farm-houses were broken
open, and every article wanted was seized, nominal payment being
made in almost worthless Confederate money. When he found he
was likely to be overmatched by Buell, he retreated southward. The
Richmond newspapers exultingly said — perhaps with some exaggera
tion — that "the wagon-train of supplies brought out of Kentucky
was forty miles long. It brought a million yards of jeans, with a
large amount of clothing, and boots and shoes ; and 200 wagon-loads
of bacon, 6,000 barrels of pork, 1,500 mules and horses, 8,000 beeves,
and a large lot of swine."
Early in October Bragg slowly began his retrograde movement, fol
lowed by Buell not quite so slowly. On the 7th a part Battieof
of Buell's advance was close upon the Confederate rear. Perr-vville-
Bragg turned back upon the pursuers, and on the 8th was fought
the battle of Perryville, lasting from noon until nightfall. The ac
tion was sharp, and well managed on the part of Bragg, and as badly
532
OPERATIONS IN THE WEST, 1862.
[CHAP. XX.
managed on Buell's part. Bragg reported his loss at about 2,500,
killed and wounded. The Federal loss WHS 3,348, of whom 916
were killed, 2,943 wounded, and 489 missing. Bragg had brought
into battle hardly a third of the number of men Buell might have
used against him ; but he had gained his immediate object. His
long train was well on its way back to Chattanooga. Buell had
shown himself everywhere a most inefficient commander. A fort
night before an order had been issued relieving him from his com
mand, and appointing General Thomas in his place ; but unfortu
nately this order was revoked
at the urgent request of Thomas.
Three weeks later the forbear
ance of the Government was ex
hausted ; and on the 30th of
October Buell was removed, and
Rosecrans appointed in his place.
There was a growing disposition
to look upon Rosecrans as the
coming man of the war. It was
believed that to him rather than
to McClellaii the early successes
in Western Virginia were due.
When Halleck was sum
moned to Washington, Grant
was left in command of the
Army of Shiloh. This had been
greatly depleted to reenforce
Buell. Van Dorn and Price,
who had a large force near Corinth, undertook to recapture that
Battle of place. Their first attempt led to an affair on the 1'Jth of
September at luka, a few miles from Corinth, in which
Rosecrans bore a prominent part. It resulted in a check to the reb
els, who lost 1,500 men, the national loss being about half as many.
The rebel forces, meanwhile, were active in Tennessee. On the 28th
of September General Anderson summoned Nashville, where Buell
had left only a small garrison, to surrender. General Negley, firmly
sustained by the provisional Governor, Andrew Johnson, perempto
rily refused, and the citizens prepared to defend themselves with such
means as they had at their command. Anderson, however, delayed
the attack till his ranks were recruited by forced conscriptions among
the people of Tennessee. On the 6th of October, Negley sent Gen
eral Palmer and Colonel Morris against him at Lavergne, fifteen
miles from Nashville, and by them he was completely routed. The
George H. Thomas.
1862.]
MORGAN'S RETREAT.
533
arrival of Breekinridge's column at Murfreesborougb, the latter part
of the month, again put Nashville in peril, but the coming of General
M'Cook's corps, early in November, again relieved it. The Sixteenth
Illinois regiment foiled an attempt, by a column under General Mor
gan, to destroy the bridge over the Cumberland, and this defeated
a movement made at the same time to take the town.
Bragg's army had passed through Cumberland Gap into East Ten
nessee on his retreat, but that important point was soon after re-
occupied by a national force under General George W. Morgan. His
position soon became a perilous one, as Kirby Smith, in the hope of
capturing the division, threw a force in his front, and took possession
Cumberland Gap.
of the roads north of him, the only direction in which he could retreat.
Morgan was cut off from his source of supplies, and, with only a few
days' rations remaining, he and his men must either starve or surren
der, if they could find no means of escape. The distance to the Ohio
River was nearly two hundred and nineteen miles, through a rough
and hilly country, and beset with enemies. Morgan was determined
to save his command. He exploded his magazine, destroyed his
stores, tents, wagons, gun-carriages, all the ammunition and arms that
the men could not carry in light marching order, and started for the
Ohio. In sixteen days they reached the banks of that river, living on
green corn, gathered as they marched, rather harassing than har
assed by the enemy who were all around them more than two to
534 OPERATIONS IN THE WEST, 1862. [CHAP. XX.
one, and to whom they gave no opportunity to take up the offensive.
" Although on the retreat," said Morgan to his troops when the bril
liant feat was finished, " you constantly acted on the offensive ; so
hotly did you press the enemy sent to retard your march, that on
three successive days you surprised the hungry rebels at their supper,
and fed upon the hurried meals which they had prepared."
Grant's operations now led him down the Mississippi, toward Vicks-
Battie of burg, Rosecrans, with 20,000 men, being left in command at
Corinth, where the fortifications had been greatly strength
ened since its abandonment by Beauregard. Van Dorn and Price,
who had about 40,000, undertook to take Corinth by direct assault
on the 4th of October. The attack, injudiciously planned, was vig
orously made. For a time it promised to be successful, several out
works being carried. But when the rebels came to the inner works,
they were met by a storm of grape, canister, and musketry which
no human endurance could withstand, and the assaulting columns
were driven back in utter confusion. The national loss here was
2,859, of whom 315 were killed, 1,812 wounded, and 232 prisoners.
The rebel loss is thus given by Rosecrans in a general order : " Upon
the issue of the fight depended the possession of West Tennessee,
and perhaps even the fate of operations in Kentucky. The entire
available force of the rebels in Mississippi attacked you. They
numbered, according to their own authorities, nearly 40,000 men,
almost double your own numbers. You killed and buried 1,420
officers and men. Their wounded, at the usual rate, must exceed
5,000. You took 2,268 prisoners." The entire loss of the enemy
was therefore more than 8,600, nearly four times that of the Federal
army.
The unsuccessful attempt upon Corinth coincides in time almost
Murfroes- exactly with the beginning of Bragg's retreat from Ken
tucky. The results of this expedition were to the authori
ties at Richmond a disappointment more bitter than had been those
of Lee's invasion of Maryland, for now they had come to look upon
the battle of Antietam as a substantial success, since McClellan
lay motionless upon the north side of the Potomac, either afraid or
unwilling to move upon Lee. Bragg was directed to renew his move
ment northward from Chattanooga. Towards the close of December,
he was at Murfreesborough, thirty miles southeast of Nashville, his
army being apparently well in hand. In Virginia things looked so
well for the rebels that Lee thought it safe to detach two thirds of
Longstreet's large corps to North Carolina. Sherman's operations
against Vicksburg seemed likely to fail. Even in Tennessee the out
look was promising, when Bragg moved to Murfreesborough. Rose-
1862.]
BRAGG AT MURFREESBOROUGH.
535
crans, with something less than 50,000 men, was at Nashville, whence
it was not thought probable that he would attempt to move before
spring. He had to depend for supplies upon Louisville, three hun
dred miles away, by means of a single railroad. Bragg had with
him, or close at hand, fully 60,000 men,1 a portion of whom, chiefly
cavalry, had been detached to operate against Rosecrans's communica
tions. The Christmas holidays were approaching, and there was
much hilarity at Murfreesborough. Jefferson Davis made a flying
Dancing on the Flag.
visit thither. There were wedding festivities, at one of which the
warlike Bishop Polk officiated, and the guests danced upon a floor
where the hated Union flag served for a carpet, that it might be
literally and boastfully "• trampled upon."
Whatever Bragg's ultimate purpose might be, Rosecrans undertook
to forestall it by suddenly taking the offensive. On the day after
Christmas he moved from Nashville, and on the 30th, having driven
1 The returns from Brass's army, of December 10, give him, in round numbers, 88,000,
"present and absent," 59,000 " present," of whom 51,000 were " present for duty."
536 OPERATIONS IN THE WEST, ]S62. [CHAP. XX.
in the rebel outposts, he took up a position about four miles from
Battle of Murfreesborough, from which he was separated by Stone
stone River. j{iveri( a sluggish stream, bordered by cedar brakes. Bragg
thereupon collected his force and assumed a line parallel to that of
Rosecrans, between it and Murfreesborough. Then ensued one of the
most hotly contested actions of the war, called the Battle of Stone
River, or of Murfreesborough. The forces engaged are very differ
ently stated, each commander affirming that he was greatly outnum
bered. Rosecrans says he had 48,000 men, and estimated that the
enemy had 62,000. Bragg gives his force at 35,000, and estimated
that of Rosecrans at 70,000. The returns show that Rosecrans's
statement was correct. The rebel returns clearly indicate that Bragg
had fully 50,000 men.
This is one of the few actions in which both commanders had de
termined to attack the enemy in his own chosen position. Each
proposed to strike first with his left at the right of the other. Bragg
struck first. At dawn of December 31st, a dense fog hung over the
banks of Stone River. Emerging from this, Bragg fell furiously
upon the Federal right. The two divisions of Johnson and Davis
were swept away, losing most of their guns and many prisoners.
The next division was that of Sheridan, who stood his ground
stoutly, though assailed in front and on one flank by greatly supe
rior numbers. At length he was forced back a little, having lost
his train, and exhausted all the ammunition of his infantry, but he
formed a new line, and stood at bay with the bayonet. For the pro
posed attack upon the enemy's weak right, Rosecrans had to cross
the river, upon the opposite side of which was only the division of
Breckinridge. This purpose had now to be abandoned, and the
entire Federal force concentrated upon a new line on their imper
illed right. This was done with rare skill, and only just in time.
The rebels rushed upon this new line, bringing up all their force, with
the exception of Breckinridge. They advanced from the cedar thick
ets which they had already won, but were met with a terrible fire
from which they recoiled. Four times the charge was repeated, with
the same result, and at last they took refuge under the cedars from
among which they had come. Breck in ridge's division of 7,000 fresh
men was now brought across the river. Twice more was the attack
renewed, and twice more was it repulsed. Night came on, and the
two armies rested in the positions where darkness found them.
On New Year's Day, 1863, there was no fighting except a little
cavalry skirmishing. Bragg evidently supposed that the enemy were
about to retreat ; but Rosecrans had been busy in strengthening his
position on what was now the rebel front, and in making prepara-
1862.]
BATTLE OF STONE RIVER.
537
tions to resume his former plan of attack. On the morning of the
2d, Bragg made some demonstrations, with the. object of discovering
what his opponent meant to do. He soon learned, to his cost. Rose-
crans had made his position a sort of citadel, from which he could sally
and strike upon any point. He sent a weak division across Stone River,
to menace the old rebel right. Breckinridge was ordered to that side
to meet this movement. This was accomplished. But Stone River was
a military obstacle so slight, that it mattered little on which side of it
the forces were. Rosecrans had in
deed lost a third of his artillery ;
but he had enough left for the work
in hand. The batteries were posted
upon an eminence, from which the
whole battle-field on both sides of
the river could be swept. Breck-
inridge's and Folk's divisions at
tempted vainly to carry this po
sition. Rosecrans tells the result in
a few words : u The firing was
terrific, and the havoc terrible. The
enemy retreated more rapidly than
they had advanced. In forty min
utes they lost 2,000 men It
was now dark and raining, or we
should have pursued the enemy into
Murfreesborough. As it was, Crit-
tenden's corps passed over, and,
with Davis, occupied the crests, which were intrenched in a few
hours."
This battle of Stone River is one of the few actions of the war
fought upon both sides in accordance with the best rules of
-, . -, Results.
strategy and tactics. Both Bragg and Rosecrans displayed
military abilitv which neither of them afterwards showed. Each
of them seems to have divined the purpose of the other. Each at
tacked at the point where he knew himself to be strongest, and
where he had good reason to believe the enemy to be weakest. Each
brought into action the whole of his force, with what resolute deter
mination is shown by the losses. The rebel loss is given at 14,700,
all killed or wounded, for there is no mention of prisoners. The na
tional loss was 1,553 killed, and something more than 7,000 wounded;
there were also 3,000 prisoners, captured early in the fight of the first
day ; making a total of about 12,000. Of about 90,000 men engaged
on both sides, more than a quarter were killed or wounded. The
William S Rosecrans.
538 OPERATIONS IX THE WEST, 1862. [CHAP. XX.
storm that raged during the 3d prevented further action, and gave
Bragg time for thought. He retreated southward. Rosecrans was
in no condition to follow up his victory, for in cavalry he was far in
ferior to the enemy.
While these operations were going on in Kentucky and Tennessee,
events of no little moment had taken place elsewhere. The
summons of Halleck to Washington had left Grant in com
mand upon the Mississippi. He now resolved to carry out the original
design of the campaign, which had been fairly begun by the capture
of Fort Donelson, compelling, as it did, the abandonment of the entire
course of the great river down to Vicksburg. The capture of New
Orleans had practically given the Federal forces the control of the
Mississippi up to that point. Vicksburg thus came to be a point
of supreme importance. The Mississippi here turns northeastward
for ten or fifteen miles, then trends to the southwest, thus forming a
sharp curve measuring thirty miles, though the distance across the
peninsula is hardly two. Vicksburg is nearly at the bend of this
curve, and if a direct channel could be made for the river, the city
would be left an inland town, ten miles or more from the Mississippi.
As early as July, 1862, when demonstrations were made up the Mis
sissippi, there had been an attempt to change the course of the river
by cutting a canal. But the mighty stream, which has often made
short cuts for itself in a single night, refused to follow the new chan
nel. Meantime the rebels had perceived the importance of Vicks
burg, surrounded it with fortifications on the land side, and greatly
strengthened the river batteries. General Pernberton, a special
favorite of Jefferson Davis, was made Lieutenant-general, in order
that he might outrank Van Dorn, and was placed in command of all
the rebel force in this region. Thus matters stood late in November,
1862, when Grant found himself in a condition to undertake the
capture of Vicksburg.
The plan of operations had been carefully arranged between Grant
and Sherman. For its execution there were in all more than 70,000
Grant's men, posted in different places, 18,000 being with Sher-
pians. man at ;\[emphis. The general idea was, that Sherman
should move rapidly down the river, while Grant, moving by the
Central Mississippi Railroad, should take Vicksburg in the rear.
Pernberton took a position midway between Vicksburg and Mem
phis, on the Tallahatchie River, hoping to prevent Grant from
coming down by the railroad, but he was manoauvred out of it.
Sherman says : " Grant moved direct upon Pemberton, while I
moved from Memphis, and a smaller force, under General Wash-
burne, struck directly upon Granada, which was in the enemy's rear.
1862.]
GRANT'S PLANS.
539
The first thing that Pemberton knew, the depot of his supplies was
almost in the grasp of a small cavalry force, and he fell back in
confusion, giving us the Tallahatchie without a battle." Vicksburg
thus seemed within the grasp of the Federal armies.
But success was wrested from them by an occurrence apparently
trivial. Grant's force must depend for supplies upon the Holly
railroad; and he had established his main depot at Holly sPrines-
Springs, a few' miles below Memphis, apparently quite safe from
molestation. This main depot was guarded by Colonel Murphy,
with about 2,000 men. Van Dorn, with his cavalry, made a long
ride around Grant's army, and on the 20th of December came upon
Holly Springs, surprising the camp, and capturing Murphy's force.
The prisoners were immediately paroled. The railroad depot, the
station-house, the engine-house, and the immense storehouses, all
filled with commissary stores and clothing, were burned. In one of
the buildings were a hundred barrels of gunpowder, the explosion of
which knocked down nearly all the houses on one side of the public
square. The goods thus destroyed were valued at $2,000,000. Grant
had learned that a raid was directed here, had given warning to
Murphy, and despatched reinforcements to him. This untoward
event compelled in the end an entire change in the conduct of the
campaign. Grant had to replace his supplies ; and before this could
540 OPERATIONS IN THE WEST, 1862. [CiiAi>. XX.
be done, he determined that the land march must be abandoned, and
the whole army should sail down the Mississippi.
Sherman, ignorant of the disaster at Holly Springs, had gone
Sherman's down the river, landed near the mouth of the Yazoo, a
upouTicks- muddy stream that falls into the Mississippi above Vicks-
burg, and made an ineffectual attack upon the land side of
the fortifications in the rear of the town. With this movement
properly began the long siege of Vicksburg. It closed on the 31st
of December, at the very time when the battle of Stone River was
at its height. The attack was rendered difficult by the nature of the
country, which was swampy and intersected by creeks and bayous,
along which were levees, sometimes fourteen feet high, which in
many places formed intrench ments as perfect as if they had been
designed for that purpose. The rebel line of works was fifteen miles
long, assailable at only a few points. An attempt was made to carry
them, but without success anywhere. The whole effort, cost Sherman
1,929 men, of whom 191 were reported as killed, 982 as wounded,
and 756 as missing. The rebel loss was very much less. Pemberton,
not now having to confront Grant upon the inland way of the rail
road, was able to throw large reinforcements into Vicksburg, trans
forming it into a citadel. Sherman was convinced that the place was
too strong to be assailed by the force at his command, and that the
direct siege must be suspended until Grant's army should come down
the river.
On the 2d of January, 1863, General McClernand came down,
with orders to take command. That which had been styled the
Army of the Tennessee ceased formally to exist. The whole force
in this quarter was now called the Army of the Mississippi, being
divided into two corps, the one to be under the immediate command
of General G. W. Morgan, the other under Sherman.
McClernand's command was brief and hardly more than nominal.
Fort Hind- The chief incident in it was the capture of Fort Hindman,
man. forty miles up the Arkansas River. This fort formed a
kind of defence for several steamers, which, sallying out into the
Mississippi, annoyed the supply-boats, and made some considerable
captures. A combined naval and military force — under Commodore
Porter and General Sherman — was sent against this fort. On the
10th of January, the gunboats shelled the Southern sharpshooters out
of their rifle-pits, and under their fire the troops pushed through the
half-frozen swamps, where they encamped during the night. In the
morning they advanced under a heavy fire, from which they suffered
severely, and were on the point of assaulting, when a white flag was
raised, and the fort was surrendered, with about 5,000 prisoners. The
1862.]
THE STRUGGLE FOR MISSOURI.
541
capture cost nearly 1,000 men. The enemy, fighting under cover,
suffered much less. So important was the fort held to be that
Churchill, its commander, had been ordered "to hold on until help
arrived, or till all were dead." He said that he would have done
so, had not some of his soldiers hung out the white flag without
his knowledge. The possession of the place, though of impor
tance to the Confederates, was of no value to the Union army, and
after some further raids up the river Fort Hindman was abandoned.
About the 20th of January Grant came down the river, and took
command in person. From this
time begins what may be styled
the second siege of Vicksburg,
closing by its surrender on the
4th of July, almost at the same
moment when the great battles
of Gettysburg had been fought
and lost by the rebels.
The struggle for the posses
sion of Missouri continued
through the year, with varying
success; but so little had mili
tary movements there to do with
those on the hither side of the
Mississippi that they can hardly
be considered as influencing the
general result. Nowhere else
Avas the struggle so clearly de
fined in a slave State between
the Unionists who were ready
to sacrifice slavery to the Union, and those who were determined
to save it by dragging the State into the confederacy. Had the
President seen fit to sustain General Fremont's proclamation of
emancipation, the issue between the two parties would at least
have been more sharply defined and more speedily settled. There
were about 115,000 slaves in the State. Had all these been freed
and those capable of bearing arms been called into service, there
can hardly be a doubt of what the result would have been. One
of Gen. Halleck's earliest orders, on taking command in that State,
was to forbid any fugitive slave from being received within the
lines of the Union forces whether in camp or on the march. It was
in accordance with Mr. Lincoln's border State policy that the order
should pass unrebuked, and with such odds in their favor, the rebels
of Missouri were encouraged to continue the struggle for the State.
David D. Porter
542 OPERATIONS IN THE WEST, 1862. [CHAP. XX.
In December, 18G1, General Pope had driven Price into Arkansas.
The rebel General was soon reen forced by Earl Van Dorn with a body
of 20,000 men, including about 2,000 Indians, under Albert Pike.
General Samuel R. Curtis, who was in command in Southern Missouri,
met and defeated this army, with about half the number, in a well-
fought battle at Pea Ridge in March. His loss was 1,351 men, one
half of which was in the division of Colonel Cass, who had borne the
brunt of the fight. Curtis's intention was to push on to Little Rock,
Arkansas, but for want of provisions — detained by low water in
White River — he could only make his way to Helena on the Missis
sippi. General Schofield was at this time in command of the militia
of the State, and through the summer his force, which was chiefly
cavalry, was busy in clearing the country of parties of guerillas. One
body of about 1,000 men was almost annihilated by Colonel Porter,
and another of 1,200 was completely dispersed by Colonel Guitar,
and the portion of the State lying north of the Missouri River was
almost entirely rid of these marauders. In the western and south
western portion of the State the rebels, for a time, were more suc
cessful, till General Schofield himself took the field. In a vigorous
campaign continued through October and November, they were driven
out of the State and followed into Arkansas, and finally dispersed in
a fight with General Blunt at Maysville and General Heron near
Fayetteville. The rebel General Hindman, who was in command
in Arkansas, soon recruited his army by fresh conscriptions, and with
11,000 men met Heron at Prairie Grove with only 5,000. With these
he withstood Hindman for half a dny, till reenforced by Blunt with
7,000 men. The battle lasted till dark, when Hindman retreated.
The Federal loss was 1,148 ; on the other side, 1,317.
Battle-flag of the Ninety-ninth Pennsylvania Regiment
(carried through thirteen pitched battles by Color-sergeant Munsell).
CHAPTER XXI.
THIRD YEAR OF THE WAR.
HOOKER IN COMMAND OF THE ARMY OF THE POTOMAC. — THE MARCH TO CHANCEL-
LORSVILLE. — THE BATTLE OF CHAXCELLORSVILLE. — THE INVASION OF PENNSYL
VANIA. — HOOKER SUPERSEDED HY MEADE. — BATTLE OF GETTYSBURG. — LEE RE
TREATS TO THE POTOMAC. — THE SIEGE AND SURRENDER OF VICKSBURG. — MEADE'S
CAMPAIGN IN VIRGINIA. — OCCUPATION OF CHATTANOOGA. — BATTLE OF CHICKA-
MAUGA. — GRANT IN COMMAND OF THE DIVISION OF MISSISSIPPI. — THE SIEGE OF
KNOXVII.LK. — THE BATTLE OF CHATTANOOGA. — SHERMAN'S MERIDIAN EXPEDITION.
— BANKS'S RED RIVER EXPEDITION.
TILL toward the close of the year 1862 the war, on the part of the
Administration, had been essentially defensive. The aim j>eofeoi-
was to ward off the blows struck at the Union, and to give oredtro°Ps-
in return as few blows as possible not demanded by this attitude of
defence. With the begin
ning of 1863 the change
came. It was to be no
longer a war with erring
brothers who had commit
ted a mistake, but with reb
els who had committed a
crime. The cause of con
tention was slavery ; the
foundation on which the
new Confederacy was to be
built was slavery; by his
proclamation of emancipa
tion, Mr. Lincoln gave no
tice to the world that the
cause and the object of dis
union should exist no longer.
Whether this might not
have been done sooner, with
all the gain that would have
come with a two instead of a four years' war, is a speculative question
that need not be discussed here. The effect now was decisive. Such
Robert G. Shav
544 THIRD YEAR OF THE WAR. [CHAP. XXI.
a step was taken and could never be receded from ; and one of its first
results was to put into the hands of the Administration a material
force, the use of which made the step irrevocable.
From the beginning the rebels had not merely relied upon the
negro as the source of subsistence for the whole South, but he was
used, whenever it Avas advisable to take him from the field of peaceful
industry, for military purposes. It is one of the most curious in
stances of how complete the sway of the slaveholder had grown to be
during the past sixty years, that while he used the slave for the
destruction of the Union, he denounced as an atrocious incitement
to insurrection the use of him to save the Union ; and so habitual
had submission become at the North, that it was not till January,
1863, that the Administration ventured to confront the popular feel
ing upon this subject by authorizing the enrolment of colored troops
at the North. General Saxton, at Beaufort, South Carolina, had been
authorized, only six months before, to enroll the slaves of rebels to
the number of five thousand j1 but the decisive step was not taken till,
in a general order for the enlistment of volunteers, sent to Governor
Andrew of Massachusetts, "persons of African descent" were, at the
Governor's suggestion, included. He provided at once for the raising
of two regiments of Northern blacks. In May, the Fifty-fourth Mas
sachusetts — Robert G. Shaw, Colonel — was reviewed on Boston
Common, and embarked for South Carolina. A second, the Fifty-
fifth — Colonel Norwood Hallo well — was soon after ready to take
the field. If the question was not settled at the moment of the em
barkation of the Fifty-fourth, it certainly was two months later, when
Colonel Shaw led his regiment in a night assault upon Fort Wagner,
in Charleston Harbor. The post of danger was given him at his own
request ; at the head of his men, under a tremendous fire, the parapet
of the fort wras gained and the colors of the regiment planted there,
though it was only for a few moments ; and at the head of his men
he fell, with most of his officers, the mere fragment of the regiment
that was left being led to the rear by a young lieutenant. The hero
ism that had braved the deep and bitter prejudice of the North, by
taking command of this first colored regiment, and that proved the
bravery and devotion of the blacks by their own splendid fighting,
was not lost. Within six months there were f)0,000 colored troops
in the Union armies ; within another year 150,000, notwithstanding
the rebel Congress decreed that all white officers of such troops should
1 The enlistment of slaves as soldiers seems to have been first suggested by Colonel John
Cochrane, in a speech in November, 1861, at a serenade given to Secretary Cameron in
New York, and a few days later, more emphatically, in an address to his regiment in Wash
ington. The proposal received the cordial approbation of the Secretary of War on both
occasions, and afterwards hi his annual report to Congress.
18G3.]
THE ARMIES OF HOOKER AND LEE.
545
suffer death if captured, and some privates who were taken were in
stantly shot.
General Joseph Hooker succeeded Burnside in command of the
Army of the Potomac near the close of January, 1863. Thetwo
It was to all appearance little more than a mob. In three armie"-
months he made an army of it. It numbered 133,000 men, of whom
Review of Colored Troops.
about 13,000 were cavalry. Confronting this great army Lee had not
quite half as man}7. His muster-rolls showed 62,000 men, of whom
3,000 were cavalry. The national and rebel armies thus lay con
fronting each other near Fredericksburg, on the opposite banks of the
Rappahannock.
35
546
THIRD YEAR OF THE WAR.
[CHAP. XXI.
On the morning of April 27th a movement was begun. A col
umn of 36,000, made up of the greater part of the. corps of
confederate Meude, Howard, and Slocum, moved thirty miles up the
bank of the Rappahannock, crossing the river at Kelly's
Ford, without opposition. Meade then moved down the opposite bank
for ten miles, to another ford, brushing away three Confederate brig
ades, so that Couch, with 12.000 men, could cross ; and then the four
Federal corps, 48,000 strong, moved on by different roads to Chan-
cellorsville, which had been designated as the place of rendezvous ;
Sickles, with 18,000 more, being only a few hours1 march behind.
Lee was fairly taken by surprise. It was not till the evening of
April 30th that he was at all
aware that his left flank had
been turned, and that the enemy
in superior force were in a posi
tion to fall upon his unprotected
rear, while with numbers hardly
less than his whole army, they
were menacing what had been
his front. His measures were
promptly taken. Jackson, whose
main force \vas twenty miles
away, was ordered up at once.
ITe began his march at midnight,
and in eight hours the head of
his column was in sight. In
three hours more the last man
was there. So that before noon
on Friday, May 1st, the Confed
erates were drawn up in line of
battle in front of the Wilderness, out of which Hooker was moving.
Hooker's defensive line was nearly in the shape of the letter C,
The Federal tlie mslin t'ront ^cillg southward, the upper and lower
position. Clirves looking east and west. Slocum was in the centre,
Meade on the left, Howard on the right, with Sickles and Ouch
mainly in reserve, though a division of each was pushed forward into
the front. Howard was weakly posted ; but as the enemy were
wholly on the Federal left, hardly reaching as far as the centre, he
was unwisely thought safe enough for the present. But cavalry
reconnoissances revealed his exposed position, and during the night
the rebels resolved to attack there. This attack involved a perilous
division of the rebel army in the presence of a superior force. Jack
son, with 80,000 men, was to move by forest roads against the Fed-
Joseph Hooker
1863.]
BATTLE OF CHANCELLORS VI LLE.
547
eral right, while Lee, with barely 20,000, was to mask the movement
by keeping up a noisy demonstration in front.
Jackson moved at daybreak, a mile of dense forest screening him
from the observation of the enemy. At one point his line
of inarch led him over a bare hill, where his long column
could be seen by the Federal outposts. It was moving southward, as
though in full retreat toward Richmond. Still the movement might
be meant for an attack upon Howard's position, and he was directed
to be upon the alert, especially to throw out pickets on his front, so
as not to be taken by surprise, — a precaution which was inexcusably
neglected. At three o'clock Jackson had made a circuit of fifteen
miles, which brought him to within
O
half a dozen miles from the point
whence he had started. He halted
only two miles west of Howard's
position. The approach of an en
emy was not even suspected. How
ard's slight intrenchments were
wholly unguarded : his men had
stacked their arms, and were pre
paring their dinner. Herds of deer,
scared from their leafy retreats,
came dashing over the lines, followed
in a few minutes by the rebels, who
swarmed down by the road and
through the woods. It was a coin-
unver u. nowara.
plete surprise, executed in broad
daylight. The regiments on whom the shock first fell Avere scattered
without even a show of resistance ; and the whole corps broke in
wild disorder and fled toward Chancellorsville. But the pursuit was
checked in two quarters. All day long Lee had kept up a noisy
demonstration on Hooker's front. Pleasanton, with two regiments
of cavalry and a horse battery, had pushed a little into the woods.
He was riding leisurely back, when he came upon an open space
filled with a confused mass of men and guns, the wrecks of How
ard's routed corps, while the woods in front were swarming with the
pursuing rebels. He brought the guns into position, and after a
fierce but brief conflict drove the enemy back into the shelter of the
dense forest. The rebels pressed the bulk of Howard's flying corps
down the broad road toward Chancellorsville, where Berry's division
of Sickles's corps was posted. Berry's men drove straight through
Floward's flying masses and poured an artillery fire into the enemy,
now almost as much disorganized by the pursuit as the fugitives were
548
THIRD YEAR OF THE WAR.
[CHAP. XXI.
Death of
Jaeksou.
in the flight. They in turn fell back into shelter, and the action of
the day was over as darkness gathered. Jackson, with a small es
cort, had ridden out to reconnoitre. Coining back, his
party, mistaken for a troop of the enemy, were fired upon
by their comrades. Jackson received three wounds, which proved
fatal, and was removed from the field.
This partial engagement had of itself little significance. Except
ing for the disorganization of Howard's weak corps, the Federals
had really lost nothing ; the bit of ground from which they had
been driven was of no consequence : and moreover during the night
Reynolds's c o r p s
had arrived from
Fredericksburg,
giving Hooker a
very large prepon
derance of force,
and every advan
tage o f position.
He had now 75,000
effective m e n a t
and about Ohan-
cellorsville. T h e
national f o r ce s
were in one com
pact body ; the reb
els were in two bod
ies, separated by
half a dozen miles
of almost pathless
forest, and it de
pended upon the incalculable chances of battle whether they could
be reunited. Moreover, Sedgwick, with 25,000 men, might be fairly
expected to drive back Early, who had but 10,000, on the heights
of Fredericksburg, and could then join Hooker, who might be con
fident that during the day he would have not less than 100,000 men
with him. The utmost that Lee could count upon, with Early added,
was 58,000. Whether Lee was aware of the odds against him, may
be questioned ; but during the night he had sent orders to Stuart
that '"these people must be pressed." Hooker had already ordered a
new line to be drawn up, to which he proposed to retire if too
strongly pressed. But in the morning his position was essentially
the same that it had been on the day before, saving the ground from
which Howard had been driven. It formed three sides of an irreg-
The Chancellor House.
1863.] BATTLE OF CHANCELLORSVILLE. 549
ular parallelogram. The left, facing eastward, was held by Hancock's
division of Couch's corps ; the centre by Slocum ; the right, facing
westward, by Sickles and by French's division of Couch's corps. Rey
nolds and Meade were in reserve in the rear; Howard was upon the
extreme left, where no attack was looked for. These last three corps
bore no part in the fighting of the day.
Sickles's extreme left had been at a somewhat elevated point known
as Hazel Grove, a little beyond the front of the general line. Hooker
ordered him to withdraw from this, and it was at once seized by Stuart,
— now commanding Jackson's former corps, — who planted there a
battery of thirty guns, in a position from which Hooker's whole centre
was completely enfiladed. As the morning fog was lifting, Stuart be
gan the attack upon Sickles, who soon asked for support, as his ammu
nition was falling short. But for the moment there was no one to re
spond to the demand. Hooker had been leaning against a pillar of
the house at Chancellorsville ; this was struck by a spent shot from
Hazel Grove, and he fell insensible from the concussion. Half of the
two corps of Reynolds and Meade, if sent to Sickles, should have in
sured a victory ; but the golden moment was lost. Sickles, having
exhausted his ammunition, sent his now useless artillery to the rear,
falling back a little to a line which he purposed to hold with the bay
onet. Just at this moment, French, with a single division, struck
Stuart sharply upon the left, but was soon repelled. This was the
only offensive movement made by the national army on this day.
Everywhere else it stood on the defensive. Lee, with the two divisions
of Anderson and McLaws, assailed the centre, which Slocum was hold
ing under the enfilading fire from Hazel Grove ; but all the while Lee
was edging around so as to unite with Stuart. The junction was ef
fected at ten o'clock, when the battle vet hung in even scale. The losses
had been heavy on both sides. Out of the 29,000 men whom Stuart
had brought into action, he had lost 7,500 in killed, wounded, and pris
oners. Sickles and French had lost 5,000 out of 22,000. The united
rebel forces, now 42,000 strong, converged toward Chancellorsville.
In their way stood Sickles and French, with 10,000 fewer ; while not
two miles distant on either hand were Reynolds, Meade, and Howard,
with 42,000, not a man of whom was moved to the scene of conflict.
The stress of the attack fell upon Sickles. Five times was the as
sault repeated, and as often repelled. Then all at once the whole
line melted away, Sickles's corps yielding first. The real work of the
action was performed by the rebel battery at Hazel Grove.
An hour before noon Chancellorsville was won by the assailants.
Couch had by this time assumed some sort of command, and by
his orders the whole army fell back to the position which had been
550
THIRD YEAR OF THE WAR.
[CHAP. XXI.
marked out the previous evening. As ;i defensive position this was a
strong one. It formed a sharp curve, like the letter Ui the apex
nearly a mile from Chancellorsville, the two sides running back to
the Rapidan, covering the fords of that river. The front could be
approached only by almost impracticable roads, while each flank
was protected by a small stream with densely wooded banks. Lee
was on the point of attacking this strong position, when tidings
reached him that Sedgwick had driven Early from the heights of
Fredericksburg, and was moving to join Hooker near Chancellors
ville. He sent four brigades to the aid of Early. Night now came
on, and both armies bivouacked upon the field.
On the morning of May 4th,
the position of the Confederate
army was apparently desperate.
Of its 50,000 effective men, 30,-
000. under Stuart and Anderson,
fronted Hooker, who had at least
70,000. Six miles eastward was
McLaws with 10,000; three
miles southward was Early with
9,000. Opposed to these was
Sedgwick, who had nearly as
many as both McLaws and
Early. Lee's only hope seemed
to lie in first crushing Sedgwick.
He therefore weakened Stuart
by detaching Anderson, with
10,000 men, to the support of
McLaws and Early, who had
now formed a junction. De
ducting losses up to this time,
the Confederate force for this new movement was 27,000 men, the
Federal 18,000. Skirmishing began early in the afternoon ; but there
was no very serious fighting until towards evening, when Sedgwick's
right, under Howe, was forced back by Anderson to a strong position
on the Rappahannock, below its junction with the Rapidan. All day
Hooker was sending the most conflicting orders to Sedgwick. Early
in the morning he was told to recross the river if he thought best ; a
little before noon he was told to remain where he was ; during the
night he was again bidden to recross ; and the movement was nearly
completed when the order was countermanded. Before the morning
of the 5th dawned, Hooker had resolved to retreat, and threw up in-
trenchments to cover the bridges which he had laid over the Rap-
John Sedgwick.
1863.]
THE INVASION OF PENNSYLVANIA.
551
Losses
idan. In the afternoon a fierce storm sprang np, preventing Lee
from renewing the attack. Before morning Hooker's whole army was
on the other side of the river, making its way back to its old position
opposite Fredericksburg.
The Federal losses in these battles were about 17,000, of whom
12,000 were reported as killed or wounded, and 5,000 missing. Of
the killed and wounded, 7,000 were in the two corps of
Sedgwick and Sickles, 4,400 in those of Slocnm, Couch, and
Howard, and only GOO in those of Meade and Reynolds. Of the miss
ing, nearly half were from the single corps of Howard. The Confed
erate loss was about 13,000, of
whom 10,300 were killed or
wounded, and 2,700 missing.
Hooker, in speaking of this en
tire movement, says it failed
" from causes of a character not
to be foreseen or prevented by
any human sagacity or re
sources.'' He affirmed that he
" had fought no battle," because
he could not get his men into
position to do so. The result,
however, coming so closely
upon that of Fredericksburg,
and coinciding with other ap
parent successes, inspired the
most sanguine hopes at Rich
mond. It was resolved to re
new the invasion of the North
upon a scale which it was believed would enable the South to con
quer a peace and dictate its terms. Before a month had passed Lee
had under his command a force of at least 100,000 men, organized
into three corps under Longstreet, Ewell, and A. P. Hill, the
_. - , 0 T 1 . The invasion
cavalry, lo,000 strong, being under Stuart, it began its of Pcnncyi-
northward march early in June, moving down the valley of
the Shenandoah. Hooker put his army in motion in a parallel di
rection, but upon the opposite side of the Blue Ridge. Lee, by an
ostentatious stretching out of his line, apparently hoped to tempt
Hooker into crossing the mountains. Finding this unavailing, lie
concentrated his entire force at Winchester. Milroy, with 10,000
Federal troops, was posted here. On the 15th of June Lee's ad
vanced corps took Milroy by surprise, taking 2,300 prisoners. On
the 24th and 25th the Confederate armv crossed the Potomac at two
George G. Meade.
552 THIRD YKAR OF THE WAR. [CiiAi>. XXI.
points, almost within sight of the battle-field of Antietam. At Ila-
gerstown, in Maryland, the two columns united, and then pressed on
toward Chambersburg, in Pennsylvania ; but leaving behind almost
the whole cavalry force for a time to harass the Federal rear.
On the 26th Hooker also crossed the Potomac, and moved towards
Frederick City, directing his line of march so as to threaten Lee's
communications rather than to bring about a general engagement.
On the next day Hooker resigned the command of the army,
persedes and General Meade was appointed in his place. Hooker's
resignation was merely the culmination of a long series of
disagreements between him and Halleck. The immediate occasion
of it was lialleck's refusal to put 10,000 men who were at Harper's
Ferry, where they could be of no use, under the direct command of
Hooker. Meade, however, made no change in Hooker's general plan.
There were no changes in the corps-commanders, except that to Sykes
was assigned what had been Meade's own corps, and Hancock re
ceived that of Couch, to whom the command of the Department of
the Susquehanna was given. Reynolds, Sickles, Sedgwick, and How
ard retained their old corps, the cavalry being placed under Pleas-
antou. The army numbered about 100,000.
Kwell's corps had now reached Carlisle, in Pennsylvania, and was
Army move- preparing to move upon Hairisburg, while Longstreet and
Hill halted at Chambersburg. But during the night of
June 28th, Lee received tidings which compelled him to change his
plans. Meade had crossed the Potomac, and was advancing north
ward. Longstreet, Hill, and Ewell were ordered therefore to move
towards Gettysburg, though neither Lee nor Meade was aware of the
Battle of strategical importance of the place. That a battle must soon
Gettysburg. ^e fougr]jf was evident to both commanders. That it was
&
fought at Gettysburg, was a matter of accident. Meade's corps were
spread over a wide space, a part under Reynolds being near Gettys
burg, and a part under Sedgwick thirty-five miles southward, with
others intervening. To concentrate the force, the advance was to be
o
drawn back and the rear brought forward to the position on Pipe
Creek, fifteen miles southeast of Gettysburg, the place selected by
Meade for the collision of the hostile armies.
On the morning of July 1st, Hill was about six miles north of Get
tysburg, when he learned that the place w;is occupied by a
Federal force. Sending back to hurry up Longstreet, he
pushed on. Reynolds sent out a cavalry reconnoissance in the direc
tion from which Hill was approaching, and the advance of the forces
came in contact about two miles northwest of Gettysburg. Rey
nolds went with infantry to the support of the cavalry, and the ac-
1863.]
BATTLE OF GETTYSBURG.
553
tion opened. He was killed at the beginning of the fight, and the
command devolved upon Howard. The Federal forces at first gained
considerable advantages. But before long the most of Hill's and
E well's corps were on the field, outnumbering Howard two to one.
The Federals were driven back in some confusion through Gettysburg,
losing in all 10,000 men, of whom half were made prisoners. The re
mainder took up a strong position on Gulp's Hill, in the rear of the
town. Meade, who was fifteen miles distant, soon learned that there
was fighting near Gettysburg, and sent Hancock with orders to take
command of the force there, and to decide what was to be done. Han
cock decided that this was the place to give battle, and sent word to
Battle-field of Gettysburg.
Meade to hurry up all his forces. Some of these came during the
night, others early in the morning, and in the afternoon Sedgwick's
corps reached the field after a march of thirty-five miles. Lee had
in the mean while suspended operations until he could bring up his
whole army.
A little after noon of July 2d, both armies were concentrated, and
fairly in position, each occupying a ridge, separated by a
valley one or two miles broad. The Federals were on
Cemetery Ridge, directly south of Gettysburg. This ridge, about
three miles long, is shaped like a fish-hook. Here and there it rises
into craggy hills. On the extreme south is Round Top, next Little
Round Top, then at some distance is Cemetery Hill at the bend of
July 2.
5o4
THIRD YEAR OF THE WAR.
[CHAP. XXL
the hook, and lastly Gulp's Hill, forming the barb. The Confeder
ate forces were mainly upon the opposite Seminary Ridge, Ewell's
division, however, being at the foot of Gulp's Hill, two miles away.
Each army numbered about 75,000 men, exclusive of cavalry. The
greater part of the Confederate cavalry was many miles away.
Probably Lee greatly under-estimated Meade's strength, for with
only a small part of his own force he assailed the strong position
in which it was placed. Longstreet was to fall upon the left at the
Round Tops, while upon the right, at Gulp's Hill, Ewell was to
make " a demonstration, to be converted into a real attack should
opportunity offer." Meade had intended that his line should oc
cupy the crest of the ridge be
tween Round Top and Cemetery
Hill, Sickles being in the centre.
At this point the ridge is com
paratively slightly marked, but
running diagonally to this is an
other and more prominent ridge.
Sickles took post here, so that
his line, instead of being con
tinuous with that of Hancock,
on his right, ran at a considera
ble angle from it, leaving be
tween them a gap of nearly half
a mile. Moreover, Little Round
Top had been left unoccupied,
and this was the key to the
whole Federal position, for if
the enemy could seize it and plant a few guns there, the Federal
line would be enfiladed from end to end.
Meade was on the point of rectifying the error into which Sickles
had naturally fallen, when at three o'clock the battle was opened by
the enemy, and it was too late. Hood's division of Longstreet's
corps struck for Little Round Top, and began swarming up its rug
ged western side. Before they could gain the summit, Warren, who
as engineer was examining the line, saw the peril, and brought tor-
ward a few regiments, who were a moment ahead of the enemy,
forced them back, and held the disputed point. The remainder of
Longstreet's corps pressed fiercely upon Sickles, who was borne from
the field with his leg shattered. His corps was slowly forced back
until it reached the true crest, where a new line was formed. The
Confederates charged this, but encountered a lire from which they,
recoiled. Hancock, who now commanded the centre, ordered a coun-
Gouverneur K. Warren.
1863.] BATTLE OF GETTYSBURG. 555
ter-charge, and the assailants were driven back to the ridge previ
ously occupied by Sickles. Ewell's demonstration upon Gulp's Hill
was delayed until the action on the left was nearly over. Most of
the force here had been withdrawn to the aid of Sickles, and Evvell
effected a lodgment within the outer line of the Federal intrenchments.
The Union loss this day was fully 10,000, two thirds of which fell
upon Sickles's corps, which lost nearly half its numbers. This action
decided nothing, for Meade did not wish to hold the ground upon the
left from which Sickles had been forced, and Ewell's foothold on the
right was of no importance in itself. Still the Confederates had
gained some apparent advantages, and, of these Lee said, " These
partial successes determined me to continue the assault the next
day."
His plan was, that Ewell should assail Gulp's Hill, on the right,
while the main effort was directed against the centre. But
early in the morning Meade had forced Ewell from the posi
tion which he had won, of which Lee was not informed. The morn
ing was spent in preparation. Batteries, mounting one hundred and
twenty guns, opened fire from Seminary Ridge. Meade had two
hundred guns, but the Ridge is so rugged that not more than eighty
could be put in position. The cannonade began an hour after noon,
and was kept up until three o'clock. Some of the Federal guns were
dismounted, but their place was supplied by others. The men were
so sheltered behind a low swell, that there was little loss of life.
After two hours, Hunt, Meade's chief of artillery, began gradually to
slacken his fire, "in order," as he says, "to see what the enemy would
do." Lee supposed that the Union batteries had been silenced, that
the infantry must be confused and frightened, and he ordered the
grand attack to be made. Everything had conspired to mislead him
as to the force of his enemy. He could not have supposed that there
were more than 40,000 men on the opposite ridge. He had no reason
to doubt that Ewell had been successful at Gulp's Hill, and would be
able to hold his own in that quarter. Moreover, Stuart's cavalry had
now rejoined him, and were ready to be hurled upon the foe when he
began to retreat. So the decisive assault was committed to a column
of not more than 18,000 men in all. These consisted mainly of Pick-
ett's Virginians, of Hill's corps, who had not as yet been engaged,
supported by the brigades of Pettigrew and Wilcox.
The column moved steadily down the slope of Seminary Ridge, and
across the valley. It had been intended that the artillery should ad
vance and support the infantry, but at the last moment it was found
that their ammunition had been used up in the useless cannonade, and
it was too late to replenish it. The column showed a front of fully
556
THIRD YEAH' OF THE WAR.
[CHAP. XXI.
a mile. No sooner did it emerge from the woods than all the Federal
guns, from Round Top to Cemetery Hill, opened upon it, plowing
great furrows through the ranks, which were closed up as fast as
made. The movement was at first directed somewhat to the left of
the Union centre. Here, a little in advance of the main Federal
line, and protected by rude intrenchments, was Doubleday's brigade.
which poured a terrible musketry fire upon the enemy's flank. Bend
ing a little to its left, the column pressed on until Pettigrew's brig
ade came to within three hundred yards of Hancock's line, which
had reserved its fire. In a few minutes the whole brigade was
streaming back in wild disorder. Pickett's division struck a weaker
point, where Gibbon's front line was thinly posted behind a low
stone wall. Pickett charged
straight over this, among the Union
batteries, and for a quarter of an
hour there was a confused hand-
to-hand melee. The Federal sol
diers rushed into the fight " helter-
skelter, every man for himself,
their officers among them," and
drove the Virginians back over
the low stone wall. Of Pickett's
three brigade commanders, Gar-
nett lay dead, Armistead mortally
wounded within the Federal lines,
and Kemper had been borne off
to die. Of all that gallant band,
not one in four escaped. The
rest were dead or prisoners. The attacking column, thus crushed in
the centre, gave way everywhere else. The Confederate loss this
day was 16,000 in killed, wounded, and prisoners, the Federal loss
being not one fifth as great. Hancock was severely wounded, and the
command of his- corps was temporarily given to Warren.
During the night Lee concentrated the remainder of his force be-
Loe'sre- hind the crest of Seminary Ridge, awaiting an attack. On
the morning of the 4th, Meade held a council of war, at
which it was decided that no attack should then be made. Before
night a heavy storm set in, under cover of which Lee began his re
treat, leaving a strong rear-guard to defend the passes through the
mountains. By the 7th he had made the march of forty miles. The
Potomac, which he had crossed almost dry-shod a fortnight before,
was now swollen by heavy rains, and not to be forded. The bridge
had been destroyed by a cavalry dash from Harper's Ferry, and he
Winfield S. Hancock.
l««3.] SIEGE OF VICKSBURG. 557
had no alternative but to intrench himself until the waters should
abate or a bridge be built. Meade, who had been considerably re-
enforced, came in sight of the Confederate in frenchmen ts on the
12th. He wished to assail them at once; but a council of war de
cided to postpone the attack until reconnoissances could be made.
On the evening of the 13th an order was issued for an advance the
next morning. But when day broke, the enemy had disappeared. A
slight bridge had been constructed, and the river had fallen so as to
be fordable at a single point. By these passages the remains of the
Confederate army had retreated, and the mighty invasion of the
North, upon which so much hud been staked, was at an end.
The Federal loss in the three days at Gettysburg Avas 23,190, of
whom 2,834 were killed, 13,713 wounded, and 6.643 miss-
» Losses.
ing. most of whom were made prisoners on the first day.
Of the Confederate loss there is nothing like an official statement.
Careful estimates, from a variety of sources, make it not less than
36,000, of whom some 5,000 were killed and 23,000 wounded. The
whole number of prisoners taken was 13,733, of whom about 8,000
were umvounded.
At the very hour of the final repulse at Gettysburg another great
disaster befell the Confederacy in the surrender of Vicks- Thesjegeof
burg, which had been so long besieged and so stoutly but in Vlcksburs-
the end so unskilfully defended. Grant took the personal direction
of operations here early in the year. About the same time General
J. E. Johnston was placed by the Confederate government in general
command of all military operations in Mississippi. He got together
all the disposable troops in his department, and undertook to relieve
Vicksburg, or at least to save the army under Pemberton, by which
it was defended. The siege of Vicksburg resolved itself into a cam
paign over a wide extent of country, conducted on eacli side by a
commander fertile in resource and of undaunted courage, each per
fectly comprehending what the other had in mind. Johnston wished
to save Pemberton's army either by strengthening it where it was, or
by withdrawing it in time. Grant wished to prevent a junction ; that
is, to force Pemberton into Vicksburg, and to keep Johnston out of it.
So with one hand he had to ward off Johnston, while with the other
he struck rapid and telling blows at Pemberton. All this demanded
movements and counter-movements, and several engagements ensued,
which may fairly rank as battles. The grand result was that on the
evening of May 17th Pemberton's army was fairly driven into Vicks
burg, while positions had been secured by which he was completely
shut in and Johnston as completely shut out. Then began the seven
weeks' close siege of Vicksburg.
558
THIRD YEAR OF THE WAR.
[CHAP. XXI.
Grant at first thought the Confederates were so disheartened
that Vicksburg might be taken by assault. On the 19th he made a
slight but ineffectual attempt. This was renewed on the 22d, with
more determination, but with like ill-success, at a cost of three thou
sand men, the enemy losing scarcely a third as many. It was now
clear that the place could be taken only by regular approach and
formal siege. This was sternly prosecuted. Before the end of June
famine began to press upon the people. Mule flesh took the place of
Porter's Fleet.
beef and bacon. A barrel of flour sold — in Confederate currency —
for $1,000 ; corn meal at $140 a bushel ; molasses at $10 a gallon.
The steady fire from the Federal gunboats had reduced the city to a
heap of ruins. Half the people were living in holes dug into the hill
sides, and even here they were not safe. Rod by rod the works of
the besiegers crept up to those of the besieged. They mined and
counter-mined against each other. On the morning of July 1st a
mine was exploded under an important part of the outer Confederate
line, damaging the interior works so that not one of the garrison
could show his head without its becoming a mark for some sharp
shooter. A practicable breach had thus been made.
The line of defence broken anywhere was broken everywhere.
Grant had now fully 60,000 men for the attack ; Pemberton not a
quarter as many for the defence ; for of the 21,000 nominally with
1803.]
SURRENDER OF VICKSBURG.
559
him, 6,000 were in the hospitals. On the morning of July 3d, it was
clear that Grant was on the point of assaulting. Pember- surrenderor
ton sent a message asking for an armistice, and the appoint- Vicksburs-
ment of commissioners to arrange terms of capitulation. Grant would
accept only an unconditional surrender. The terms were settled that
day, although the surrender was not formally made until the morning
of July 4th. The garrison was paroled, not to take up arms again
until exchanged by proper authority. Officers were to retain their
side-arms and private baggage, and field and cavalry officers one
horse for each. Privates were to keep their own clothing, and to
have rations sufficient to enable them to reach their homes.
The military results of this campaign, as summed up by Grant,
were : " The defeat of the enemy in five battles outside of
Vicksburg ; the occupation of Jackson, the capital of the twscam-
State of Mississippi, and the capture of Vicksburg, its garri
son, and munitions of war; a loss to the enemy of 87,000 prisoners,
at least 10,000 killed and wounded,
and hundreds, perhaps thousands,
who can never be collected and re
organized. Arms and munitions of
wari'oran army of 60,000 men have
fallen into our hands, besides a large
amount of other public property,
and much that was destroyed to pre
vent our capturing it." He might
have added the fall of Port Hudson,
which Farragut with a naval, and
Hanks with a land force had vainly
attempted to reduce, but whose sur
render was inevitable after the fall
of Vicksburg. The entire Federal
loss in Grant's operations was 8,575,
of whom 943 were killed, 7,095 wounded, and 537 missing. The fall
of Vicksburg reopened the Mississippi from its headwaters to the Gulf
of Mexico.
The military operations in Virginia for the remainder of the year
may be very briefly narrated. At the close of August the conscrip
tion had augmented the Confederate force very considerably. Their
muster-rolls showed 56,327 "present for duty." Meade's force was
largely reduced. One division was sent to South Carolina to aid
in the sie<re of Charleston. The disgraceful draft riots in New York
O "
had indeed been suppressed, but the opposition to the draft was still
so threatening that a large number of troops was detached from the
Nathaniel P. Banks.
THIRD YEAR OF THE WAR. [CHAP. XXI.
Army of the Potomac to maintain order in New York. Those riots,
New York ^ not, primarily, an outbreak of the rebellion, were meant
riots- to be used as an efficient aid to it at the North. From
the steps of the City Hall in New York, the Governor of the State,
Horatio Seymour, addressed a crowd of ruffians, bent upon slaughter
and robbery, as " my friends ; " the leading opponents of the war sat
— there is good reason for believing — in secret conclave during the
first two days, to devise measures, not to suppress the mobs, but to
guide them into revolution; and this project was only 'relinquished
when it became evident that the thieves, and the Irish assassins of
helpless negroes, were beyond control, and must be left to be dealt
with by the military and the police.
During the early days of September, Lee's force was about equal to
that of Meade. But in the West things looked ill for the Confederates.
Rosecrans had manoeuvred Bragg out of the stronghold of Chatta
nooga, and was apparently pressing him hard in Tennessee; so Long-
street's corps was detached to the aid of Bragg, reducing Lee's effect
ive force to 44,000 on the last day of September. Meade then,
without waiting for orders, moved his army across the Rappahannock,
establishing himself at Culpepper, Lee falling back behind the Rap-
idan, where he took up a strong position.
Meade was now in a region of which he knew nothing, and could
learn nothing except by means of cavalry reconnoissances. This took
time ; but he had just formed a plan of operations, when tidings came
that things were going badly in the West. Bragg — or rather Long-
street — had defeated Rosecrans at Chickamauga, on the -JOth of Sep
tember, and a quarter of the Army of the Potomac must be sent to
Tennessee. The corps of Howard and Slocum were chosen for that
purpose, under the command of Hooker. Early in October, Meade
was reen forced by the return of most of the regiments which had been
sent to New York, and by some altogether worthless troops furnished
by the draft. His force, as he estimated it, was between 60,000 and
70,000 ; the enemy, who had also been somewhat strengthened, he
supposed to be about 10,000 less. As a matter of fact, the Confederate
muster-rolls on the last day of October showed 45,014 effective men.
During these months Lee and Meade were continually feeling
each other, ench looking for some weak point at which to
strike. The last of these inconclusive operations took place
near the close of November. Lee, supposing that active opera
tions for the season were over, had scattered his troops over a wide
space. Ewell was posted upon a line fifteen miles long upon Mine
Run, a little affluent of the Rapidan, near the western border of
the Wilderness. Then, with an interval of some miles, lay Hill's
1*63.] BATTLE OF CIIICKAMAUGA. 06!
corps, its extremity being at Charlottesville. The distance from
one end of the line to the other was certainly not less than forty-five
miles. Meade's army of 70,000 lay compactly together, only a few
miles from Mine Run, the Rapidan separating him from the enemy.
It seemed entirely feasible to fall upon Ewell, and crush him before
he could be aided by Hill. For this purpose a force of nearly 60,000
men was to be set in motion on the 24th of November. But a
storm delayed operations until the 29th. The movement had become
known, and Hill had come up to the aid of Ewell. The Confederates,
strongly posted, were quite willing to be attacked. Meade wisely de
cided that nothing more could be done in this inclement season, and
withdrew his force across the Rapidan to its former position. With
this abortive attempt, the campaign of 1863, in Virginia, came to an
end ; both armies retiring into winter quarters to await the opening
of the next spring.
At the West, after the battle of Stone River, Rosecrans showed, for
the next six months, a feebleness which contrasted strangely Chattanooga
with his former vigor. June had come, and almost gone, occ"Pied-
before he even attempted a movement against Bragg, who had posted
himself only a score of miles from Murfreesborough. Then Bragg
fell back to Chattanooga, out of which he was manoeuvred early in
September ; and on the 8th the Federal forces took possession of that
place of so much military importance. Rosecrans, supposing that
the Confederates were in full retreat for Alabama, moved his whole
force after them ; but Bragg, having been largely reenforced, and
knowing that Longstreet's corps from Virginia was close at hand,
resolved upon an effort to recover Chattanooga. Both armies had
become much scattered in that mountainous region ; but on the 18th
of September they were fairly concentrated upon the Chickamauga —
" the Dead River,'' — twelve miles from Chattanooga.
The battle was opened upon the 19th, the immediate object of
the Confederates being to get possession of the road leading
to Chattanooga. There was hot fighting all the day, but chickamau-
with no decided advantage upon either side. During the
night, Longstreet arrived with his corps, and received the immediate
command of the Confederate left, Polk being assigned to that on the
right. Thomas, who commanded ^he Union left, repulsed a sharp
attack by Polk ; but upon the right, where Rosecrans commanded in
person, Longstreet was wholly successful. Rosecrans galloped back
to Chattanooga, whence he telegraphed to Washington that his
whole army had been beaten. Not so thought Garfield, his chief
of staff. The two riding together came to a point where the roads
diverged. One led to Chattanooga, the other in the direction where
56-J
THIRD YEAR OF THE WAR.
[CHAP. XXI.
Thomas was posted, and where there was the sound of a steady
firing, unlike that of a routed army. Thither, while Rosecrans rode
on to Chattanooga, Garfield asked leave to go. He found Thomas
sorely pressed by superior numbers, yet standing firm as a rock. Polk
was assailing his centre and left, Longstreet fighting still more strenu
ously upon the right. Assault after assault was made, and repulsed.
The final charge was made at
about four o'clock. Longstreet
had discovered a gap in the hills,
almost upon Thomas's rear,
through which he began to pour
his heavy column. At this crit
ical moment, Granger, who had
been held in reserve, came up
with a division which had never
before seen a fight. If they had
been veterans of a hundred bat
tles they could not have done
better. Bravely as the Confed
erates fought, they were fairly
out-fought. Longstreet's last ef
fort was made at about sunset.
Two of his divisions tried to
force their way through a narrow gorge which was commanded by a
battery of six guns. They charged up almost to within a few yards
of it, but the fire was too heavy to be withstood. They fell back,
and the battle was over. Thomas, having held his position, fell back
towards Chattanooga, still showing a firm front, On the 21st he was
quite ready to fight again. But Bragg was not disposed to attack :
and on that evening Thomas withdrew into the defences of Chat
tanooga, whither the remainder of Rosecrans's army had preceded
him.
The battle of Chickamauga was a formal victory for the Con
federates, for they had forced the enemy from the field.
and kept possession of it ; but beyond this they gained
nothing worth having, for Chattanooga remained in the hands of the
Federals. The numbers actually engaged were probably about 50,000
on each side, although some 10,000 of Rosecrans's force were isolated
early on the first day, and took no further part in the battle. The
losses were heavy on both sides. The Federal loss was 16,351, of
whom 1,644 are reported as killed, 9,622 wounded, the remainder
being '^missing,"' many of them probably killed. They also lost
fifty-one guns, but captured fifteen, making the net loss thirty-six
James A. Garfield.
1863.] MILITARY CHANGES. 563
guns. The Confederate loss is nowhere stated in full. Taking the
official reports as far as they go, and estimating the rest, it was not
far from 16,000 killed and wounded, and 2,000 prisoners. Bragg says
loosely that he lost two fifths of his command, which would bring
his loss up to fully 20,000 ; but such general statements are worth
little. That Rosecrans was outgeneraled at Chickamauga is clear,
and his escape from a ruinous defeat was owing wholly to the firm
ness of Thomas.
Bragg now proceeded to beleaguer Rosecrans in Chattanooga by
cutting the roads through which supplies reached him. It Military
had for some time become clear that Rosecrans was no chanses-
longer the man for the position. On the 19th of October he was
relieved, and Thomas was placed in command of this army, Rose
crans being assigned not long after to the command of the now un
important department of the Missouri. Just before this the whole
Western region had been erected into the " Military Division of the
Mississippi,"' comprising the departments and armies of the Ohio,
Cumberland, and Tennessee, Grant having the command of the whole.
He was directed to go at once to Chattanooga, which place he reached
on the 23d of October, having four days before telegraphed to
Thomas to hold fast at all hazards. " I will do so till we starve,"
was the prompt reply of Thomas.
Early in the spring Burnside, having been relieved from the com
mand of the Army of the Potomac, was assigned to the Burm,jdeiu
command of the Department of the Ohio, his headquarters Tennessee-
being at Cincinnati, but his army, of about 20,000, was concentrated
near Richmond, in Kentucky. About the middle of August, while
Rosecrans was moving towards Chattanooga, Burnside moved through
a difficult mountain region towards Knoxville. He took possession of
the town on the 9th of September, and occupied himself in restoring
the Federal authority in that region.
Towards the close of October, Jefferson Davis made a visit to
Bragg at his headquarters overlooking Chattanooga. He The 8iege of
thought that the Federal army there was in a trap from Knoxvllle-
which it could not escape, and accordingly it was decided that Long-
street should be sent to wrest Knoxville from the grasp of Burnside.
This movement was begun early in November. From Chattanooga
to Knoxville the distance is about eighty miles. Longstreet's march
was delayed by many causes; but on the 17th he appeared before the
town, upon which he made an assault the next day. He was foiled
in this, and set himself to take the town by famine. But before this
could be done, the battle of Chattanooga had been fought, and Grant
was at liberty to send aid to Burnside. Longstreet, probably not
564
THIRD YEAR OF THE WAR.
[CHAP. XXI.
knowing how completely Bragg had been routed, resolved upon an
almost desperate attempt to take Knoxville by storm on the morning
of the 29th. Fort Sanders was the key of the defences. In the gray
of the morning the assault was delivered. The Confederates burst
through the abatis, crossed the ditch, climbed the parapet, some of
them even crawling through the embrasures ; but they were speedily
forced back into the ditch. A second attempt was made, with like
result. Then a truce was asked, that they might carry off their dead
Knoxville
relieved.
and wounded ; they were 500 in number, while of the defenders
hardly a half score were hurt.
Grant, after winning the battle of Chattanooga, had on the 28th
sent Sherman with a strong force to the relief of Burnside.
" Seven days previously," says Sherman, " we had marched
from our camps on the west side of the Tennessee, with only two
days' rations, without a change of clothing, and with but a single
blanket or coat to a man, from myself to the private inclusive. We
had no provisions save what we gathered by the road, and were ill-
supplied for a march. But twelve thousand of our fellow-soldiers
were beleaguered at Knoxville, eighty-four miles distant, and they
must be relieved in three days." It took twice three days, for the
difficulties were great. Thus, on the 2d of December, when forty
miles from Nashville, the Little Tennessee had to be crossed. The
river was not fordabie, and it took till the 4th to build a bridge. On
1863.] BATTLE OF CHATTANOOGA. 565
the night of the 5th, a message came from Burnside, announcing that
Longstreet had abandoned the siege, and was retreating towards Vir
ginia.
Soon after the middle of November, Grant had moved to dislodge
Bragg from the commanding position which he held over
looking Chattanooga, " The Hawk's Nest " of the Chero- of chattu-
kees. On the 23d he was ready to strike a decisive blow.
He had 80,000 men, all well in hand, while Bragg, weakened by the
absence of Long-street's corps sent to Knoxville, had about 50,000.
Bragg's line was some twelve miles long. The essential features of
it were two elevations overlooking the valley in which Chattanooga
lies. On the south is Lookout Mountain, rising to the height of
2,400 feet. On the east is the somewhat lower height of Missionary
Ridge, — so called because the Catholic Fathers had many years be
fore established there a chapel and school for the benefit of the
Cherokees. Operations were begun on the evening of the 23d, when
the Confederate picket lines were driven back, and favorable posi
tions gained. On the morning of the 24th, Hooker was sent to assail
the position upon Lookout Mountain. A dense fog concealed the
movement; and the Confederates, taken by surprise, fled from the
position, without much fighting, but with the loss of 2,000 prisoners.
The dense fog had settled into the valley, and completely hid from
view the movements upon the mountain. This engagement has been
poetically styled the " Battle above the Clouds."
On the morning of the 25th, Sherman was ordered to assault the
position upon Missionary Ridge, which was so strong that, as Bragg
says, " no doubt was entertained of our ability to hold it, and every
disposition was made for that purpose." Several determined assaults
were made and repelled ; but late in the afternoon, three divisions,
under Sheridan, Wood, and Baird, stormed the ridge, and broke the
Confederate line. The routed army retreated southeastward to Dai-
ton, in Georgia, taking up a strong position, where it remained almost
inactive until May, when Sherman commenced the Atlanta campaign,
which led to his march to the sea. In the battle of Chat
tanooga the Federal loss was 5,616, of whom 757 were
killed, 4,529 wounded, and 330 missing. The Confederate loss in
killed and wounded was not more than 4,000 ; but there were fully
6,000 prisoners ; they also lost about forty guns.
With the battle of Chattanooga properly closed the military opera
tions of 1863. But two enterprises which took place early in 1864
properly belong to this campaign. After the capture of Vicksburg,
and the opening of the Mississippi, the rebels still held two lines of
railroad, one running north and south to Mobile, the other east and
566
THIRD YEAR OF THE WAR.
[CHAP. XXI.
The Merid-
iiin expe
dition.
west, the two lines connecting at Meridian in Central Mississippi.
It had been the intention to cut these roads immediately
after the capture of Vicksburg, but the necessity of bringing
Sherman to Chattanooga delayed the execution of this plan.
The Confederates being driven from Tennessee, Sherman determined
to execute it. He moved from Vicksburg on the 3d of February,
reached Meridian on the 14th without opposition, and began the work
of destruction. During five days there were 10,000 men at work.
Meridian had been thought so safe that several of the Confederate of-
Destroying a Railroad.
ficers were here building fine residences. It was left a smoking ruin.
Private houses actually occupied were spared. Everything else —
ddpots, store-houses, arsenals, hospitals, cantonments — was destroyed.
The destruction of the railroads was the main object of this expe
dition. The troops soon learned how to do this work most effectu
ally. The rails and ties were torn up ; the ties were piled into heaps,
and the rails laid across them. The pile was then kindled, and when
the rails were red-hot, they were taken off and twisted, sometimes
around trees, for it had been found that a rail merely bent could be
easily straightened, while a twisted one was useless. Sherman re
turned to Vicksburg early in March, having been gone not quite a
1864.] THE MERIDIAN AND RED RIVER EXPEDITIONS.
567
month. Many things which he had set about doing were not done,
owing to the failure of some of his subordinates to perform their
assigned part. But the general result is equalled only by his subse
quent march from Atlanta to Savannah and through the Carolinas.
During the month of February he had marched four hundred miles
into the very heart of the Confederacy, and had lost in all less than
two hundred men. He had destroyed one hundred and fifty miles
of railroad, sixty-seven bridges,
seven hundred trestles, twenty
Colonel Bailey's Dam. locomotives, SCVei'al tllOUSaild
bales of cotton, and two million bushels of corn; while more than
8,000 liberated slaves accompanied him in his return march.
During the summer of 1863, the movements of the French in
Mexico rendered it desirable that the United States should
occupy some portion of Texas. Shreveport, the head of
navigation on the Red River, three hundred and fifty miles
from Newr Orleans, was fixed upon as the base of operations. Banks
w;is to send a strong force from New Orleans; General Steele was to
move another from Little Rock, in Arkansas ; while Porter, with a
tleet of twelve gunboats and thirty transports was to ascend the river.
The execution of this project was delayed by the operations in Ten
nessee, but after the close of the Meridian campaign, Sherman fur
nished Banks temporarily with 10,000 men from his army, under
the command of General A. J. Smith, who embarked from Vicks-
burg on the 10th of March, reaching the mouth of the Red River
on the 12th, where they expected to be joined by Banks's column,
568
THIRD YEAR OF THE WAR.
[CHAP. XXI.
15,000 strong. The army reached Natchitoches, one hundred miles
below Shreveport, and then commenced its march through the pine
forests by a single road, the column being nearly thirty miles long.
On the 8th of April, Banks was attacked by the Confederates at Sa-
bine Cross Roads, and suffered a loss of 3,000 men. He fell back
to Pleasant Hill, where on the next day he was again attacked. The
enemy were repulsed, but Banks resolved to abandon the expedition.
On the 27th he reached Alexandria, after a march of eighty miles.
He lost in all 5,000 men, eighteen guns, 130 wagons, and 1,200
horses and mules. The river had in the mean time fallen so low that
the fleet was unable to descend the rapids at Alexandria. But Col
onel Joseph Bailey constructed a dam, by which the water was raised
sufficiently to permit the passage of the vessels. Steele, with some
15,000 men, had in the mean time marched from Little Rock ; but
learning of Banks's retreat, he fell back, and the unfortunate expedi
tion came to an end.
Making Road through Swamp.
CHAPTER XXII.
GRANT IN VIRGINIA. — SHERMAN'S MARCH TO THE SEA.
GRANT MADE LIEUTENANT-GENERAL. — THE FORCES IN VIRGINIA — GRANT'S PLAN
OF CAMPAIGN. — BATTLE OF THE WILDERNESS. — BATTLES AT SPOTTSYLVANIA. —
FLANKING MOVEMENTS. — MINOR OPERATIONS. — THE SECOND BATTLE OF COLD
HARBOR. — THE MARCH TO THE JAMES RIVER. — SHERMAN AT THE SOUTH. — PLANS
OF SHERMAN AND JOHNSTON FOR THE ATLANTA CAMPAIGN. — ENGAGEMENT AT RE-
SAGA. — BATTLE AT KEXESAW MOUNTAIN. — JOHNSTON SUPERSEDED BY HOOD. —
THE BATTLES NEAR ATLANTA. — CAPTURE OF ATLANTA. — HOOD DEFEATED AT
NASHVILLE. — SHERMAN'S MARCH TO THE SEA. — THE CAPTURE OF SAVANNAH.
MEADE'S campaign in Virginia, after the battle of Gettysburg, had
been inconclusive. The leading members of the Congres
sional Committee upon the Conduct of the War urged that ueatcnant-
he should be removed. They were in favor of the reappoint-
ment of Hooker, but would acquiesce in that of any other general
whom the President should think better fitted for the place. But
all eyes had been turned to Grant, and it was tacitly conceded that
he should be made the commander of all the armies in the field. For
this purpose the grade of Lieutenant-general was revived, and upon
the 19th of March, 1864, his commission was formally presented to
him by the President. Henceforth the control of military operations
.070
GRANT IN VIRGINIA.
[CHAP. XXII.
was to be in the hands of a soldier, free from the dictation of civilian
authority, even that of Mr. Stanton, the Secretary of War. Grant
bears emphatic testimony in this regard. He says : " The Secretary
of War has never interfered with my duties. He has never dictated
a course of campaign to me, and never inquired what I was going to
do, and he has heartily cooperated with me. "
The appointment of Grant to the chief command involved
several important military changes. Sherman was put in
Grant, Sher- . l -.
man, and special charge of operations in the West, Halleck was
made Chief of Staff, his duties being mereby nominal. Meade
had shown high capacity, but not the highest. At Grant's request
lie was continued in the imme
diate command of the Afmy of
the Potomac. Grant bears em
phatic testimony to his fitness
for this position. He says :
u Commanding, as I did, all the
armies, I tried, as far as possi
ble, to leave General Meade in
independent command of the
Army of the Potomac. My in
structions for that army were,
all through him, leaving all the
details of execution to him.
The campaigns which followed
proved him to be the right man
in the right place."
The arrangements for the
spring campaign of 1864 were
wiiiiam T. Sherman. made upon the assumption that
the Federal armies would con
sist of not less than a million of men. On the 1st of May they nom-
Thr forces inally came within 30,000 of this number, but of these
in Virginia. oniy 660,000 were reported as "present for duty." Of
these, 810,000 were in Virginia and the Carolina*, Avhere the Con
federates had not more than 125,000. The immediate contest here
was to be between the Federal Army of the Potomac, about 140,000
strong, and the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia, numbering
about 65,000, including Longstreet's corps, which had just returned
from the West, after its ineffectual attempt upon Burnside at Knox-
ville. The Army of the Potomac was organized into three corps, des
ignated as the Second, Fifth, and Sixth. Hancock, having recovered
from the wound received at Gettysburg, was placed in command of
1864.]
GRANT'S PLAN OF CAMPAIGN.
571
the Second, the Fifth was given to Warren, Sedgwick retained the
Sixth. Besides these was the newly-organized Ninth Corps, under
Burnside, which contained many colored troops. It had been intend
ed to send this corps to North Carolina, but the exigencies of the cam
paign rendered it necessary to add it to the Army of the Potomac,
Burnside waiving his nominal superiority in rank, and cheerfully serv
ing under Meade, who only a few months before had been his subor
dinate. Besides the 140,000 of the Army of the Potomac, there were
42,000 in and about Washington, 31,000 in Western Virginia, 59,000
in what was styled the Depart
ment of Virginia and North
Carolina, of whom 25,000,
known as the Army of the
James, under Butler, were sup
posed to be available for service
in the field. In South Caroli
na, Georgia, and other minor
departments, were about 38,000
more. All these constituted
the 310,000 under Grant, op
posed to the 125,000 Confeder
ates in the same region.
Grant, knowing his great
preponderance in numbers, and
yet fully appreciating some ad
vantages of the enemy in posi
tion, had decided upon his plan
of campaign. " I was im
pressed,'' he says " with the idea that active and continuous opera
tions of all the troops that could be brought into the field, regardless
of the season and the weather, were necessary to a speedy termination
of the war. The resources of the enemy and his numerical strength
were far inferior to ours ; but, as an offset to this, w-e had a vast ter
ritory, with a population hostile to the Government, and long lines of
communications to protect, to enable us to supply the operating ar
mies. It was a question whether our numerical strength and resources
were not more than balanced by these disadvantages. I therefore de
termined to use the greatest number of troops, and to hammer contin
uously against the armed force of the enemy and his resources, until
by mere attrition, if in no other way, there should be nothing left to
him but equal submission with the loyal sections of our common
country to the Constitution and laws of the land." There were two
great Confederate armies to be met and crushed, — that of Lee in
Ambrose P. Hi
57'J GRANT IN VIRGINIA. [CHAP. XXII.
Virginia, and that of Johnston in Georgia. The latter task was
committed to Sherman. Grant instructed him "to move against
Johnston's army, break it up, and go into the interior of the ene
my's country, as far as possible, inflicting all the damage that can
be done upon their war resources." The instructions to Meade were
of like tenor : " Lee's army is to be your objective point ; wherever
that goes, you must go." The series of operations contemplated in
this plan was to be commenced simultaneously, and as nearly as pos
sible on the 1st of May.
The Confederate Army of Northern Virginia had lain in winter
quarters along the south bank of the Rapidan, the lines stretching
about twenty miles. The position, naturally strong, had been skil
fully fortified. In front, rifle-pits commanded every ford, and in-
trenchments crowned every hill-top. An assault in front was neither
apprehended by Lee nor intended by Grant. The attack would be
by turning the line either on the right or the left. Lee supposed
that this would be made upon his left, and had massed the bulk of his
force in that direction. The corps of Ewell and Hill lay behind the
defences of the Rapidan, their centre being at Orange Court House ;
while Longstreet's corps was at Gordonsville, thirteen miles farther
to the southwest. But Grant decided to move by Lee's right. He
hoped, that after forcing the enemv from his intrenchments on the
Rapidan, he might bring him to battle somewhere north of Rich
mond; but failing in that, he meant to follow him wherever he
should go.
Before daylight on the morning of May 4, the Army of the Poto
mac marched in two columns for the lower fords of the Rapi-
The passage t rt i i i • i
of the dan. Such a movement could not escape observation, and as
J tup i dan.
the columns neared the river signal fires gave notice of their
approach. But the crossing was to be made ten miles below the ex
tremity of Ewell's line, as much farther from the centre of Hill's
corps, and thirteen miles more from Longstreet's position ; so that
Lee was unable, had he been so disposed, to dispute the passage of
the river. He may not have cared to do this ; for in a few hours the
Federal army would be entangled in the Wilderness, where its great
superiority in numbers would be of little moment. During the win
ter Lee had caused accurate surveys to be made of the region, so that
every rood of it, every road and by-path, were known to him, while
his opponent must necessarily know little of the character of that
wild region. With his 6"), 000 men Lee believed he could overmaster
twice that number if brought against him.
On the evening of the 4th of May the headquarters of Grant and
Meade were at a roadside inn near the centre of the Wilderness.
1864.] BATTLE OF THE WILDERNESS. 573
Through the Wilderness from north to south, starting from German-
na Ford, runs a tolerable road. Nearly parallel with this, Battieofthe
lialf a dozen miles distant, is another road, passing near Wilderness-
Chancellorsville. These two roads, after many windings, come to
gether near Spottsylvania Court House. By these, neither of them
very good, Grant proposed to unite his two columns, after they had
got clear of the Wilderness. But running east and west through this
region, are two other good roads, starting from Orange Court House,
running nearly parallel, about three miles apart, until they unite at
Chancellorsville. They thus cross, at nearly a right angle, the roads
by which Grant's columns must advance. Moving by these Lee pro
posed to strike upon the flanks of Grant's long columns, with the
hope of cutting them in two, and routing them.
When, therefore, Lee learned that the Federal army was heading
for the fords of the Rapidan, he put his columns in motion. At
nightfall the advance of Ewell's corps lay within three -miles of the
Federal headquarters. Hill, having farther to go, was some distance
behind. Longstreet, still farther off, was ordered to come up with
all possible speed. Grant anticipated no attack, and his plan for the
next day wras to move leisurely on by the different roads. If there
had been no interruption, the whole Army of the Potomac would
have cleared the Wilderness that day.
Warren moved early on the morning of May 5th. By way of precau
tion, a body of cavalry had on the preceding afternoon rid-
J , J . r ° May 5.
den some distance down the turnpike and found no enemy,
for Ewell was still some miles away. On this morning other cavalry
were sent down the road, up which Ewell was now moving. These
troops came in contact, and the Battle of the Wilderness was begun.
Still the Federal commanders anticipated no real battle. Meade said,
kk They have left a division here to fool us." At the outset the Con
federates were forced back for a space ; but they were continually
reenforced, and then the Federals were driven back. An hour before
noon Grant was convinced that the enemy was in force and meant to
tight. He ordered Sedgwick to support Warren, while Hancock,
who was some miles ahead, was to move back and join Warren at
the junction of the roads. The fighting here was close and furious
until four o'clock in the afternoon, with little advantage on either
side. Both then drew back, and intrenched themselves.
Each commander planned to attack the other early in the morning.
Lee was a few minutes the quicker, throwing Ewell against
the Federal right. This movement, which was only a feint,
was repelled, without delaying the assault which Grant had ordered
Hancock to make upon the Confederate right, where Hill was driven
574 GRANT IN VIRGINIA. [(.'MAP. XXII.
back for a mile and a half. Longstreet's veteran corps stayed the
flight. A flank movement had been planned for him ; but while pre
paring to execute it, he was severely wounded by a mistaken fire from
his own men, and the command of his corps devolved upon R. II.
Anderson. Both sides were much broken up during the morning :
but not long after noon Lee flung the corps of Hill and Longstreet
upon Hancock, who had intrenched himself behind a breastwork of
pine logs. No impression was made upon this until four o'clock,
when a fire which had sprung up in the dry forest reached these
works. The wind blew the smoke and flames right in the faces of
the defenders. The Confederates swarmed over, but were soon driven
back to their own lines. This virtually closed the battle, although
after dark Ewell made an unexpected attack upon a portion of Sedg-
wick's corps, cutting off and capturing two brigades, numbering 3,000
men, with hardly any loss to himself. The two days' battle was
fought almost entirely by musketry, for the nature of the ground
precluded any effectual use of cavalry or artillery, and rendered
manoeuvring impossible. The losses on both sides were great. The
Federal loss in killed and wounded was about 15,000, besides 5,000
prisoners. The Confederates lost about 10,000 killed and wounded,
and few prisoners. Still the real advantage was on the side of Grant,
for Lee had failed in his bold and skilful attempt to repeat the suc
cess of Chancellorsville.
The 7th was spent in reconnoissances, which convinced Grant that
Lee was in no condition to attack, and that, though quite willing to
be assailed in his intrenchments, he could be flanked out of that
strong position. In the evening the army moved toward Spottsyl-
vania Court House, fifteen miles to the southwest, by different roads.
Lee moved toward the same point, reaching it a little in advance,
thus gaining time to intrench himself upon a commanding ridge from
which he could be forced only by hard fighting. Monday, May 9th,
was spent in preparations. A heavy fire was kept up from the Con
federate lines upon every point where Federal batteries were
Battles of t t -01-1 -11
Spottsyi- being erected. At one of these points bedgwick was killed
vania. I-/IITI i -i i • •
by a rifle- bullet, while placing a battery in an exposed posi
tion from which his men had shrunk. The next two days there was
much sharp but indecisive fighting, but the general result seemed to
Grant to presage success. On the llth he sent to the War Depart
ment a despatch, some sentences of which have become historic.
"• We have," he says, " now ended the sixth day of very hard fight
ing. The result to this day is much in our favor. Our losses have
been heavy, as well as those of the enemy. I propose to fight it out
on this line, if it takes all summer." The work, however, was done
1864.]
BATTLES AT SPOTTSYLVANIA.
57,-)
on a quite different line, and took not only all summer, but all au
tumn and winter, and reached far into the next spring. Grant's final
report, written a year later, has a somewhat different tone. In this
he says: "The 9th, 10th, and llth were spent in manoeuvring and
fighting, without decisive results." The Federal loss during these
three days was about 10,000 in killed and wounded. The Confeder
ates, fighting behind intrenchments, suffered far less.
Death of Genera! Sedgwick.
Lee's left had been found impregnable ; but there appeared to be a
weak point in his centre, and upon this a strong assault was ^ ^
made. In the gray dawn, and under cover of a dense fog,
Hancock's corps dashed upon this point, which was a salient angle
thrust forward from the main line. Without firing a shot, the Con
federate pickets were swept back ; the abatis was passed, and the
breastworks carried. Here was Johnson's division of Ewell's corps,
numbering 4,000 men, three fourths of whom were made prisoners.
576 GRANT IN VIRGINIA. [CHAI>. XXII.
But this salient was only an outwork of no great importance, for half
a mile behind it a second line had been laid out and partly fortified.
Here Ewell took firm stand, and was speedily reenforced by Hill and
Anderson. The position was a vital one for the Confederates, for if
it were carried, their line would be severed. The fierce fight which
ensued, lasting all day and far into the night, was one of those of
which even the combatants themselves can give no clear account.
The greater part of both armies were engaged. They charged and
countercharged, each in turn being driven back. In the end, the
Federals retained the salient which they had won in the morning,
while the Confederates held their line close behind it, so that their
position was not really weakened. The Federal losses were not far
from 10,000 in killed and wounded. The Confederates lost fewer in
killed and wounded, but more in prisoners.
Grant had struck a heavy, but not a crushing blow. For another
week he tried to find a weak point in the Confederate line, but was
everywhere confronted by intrenchments too strong to be assailed.
Flanking During this time he received re enforcements fully equal to
movements, j^ josses_ fje then resumed his flanking movements. Lee,
to counteract these, ventured an attack upon Grant's right flank
which was repelled with no little loss. But on the morning of the
22d, Lee saw before him no trace of the great army with which he
had been fighting. He could not be mistaken as to the direction
in which it had gone, and the purpose which it had in view. So he
broke up his camps, and hastened to throw himself again across its
line of advance toward Richmond.
Two days of quick marching, through a region as yet untrodden
The North by armies, brought Grant to the North Anna. Lee, having
a less distance to go, was there before him, on the opposite
bank. His settled policy was not to oppose seriously the passage
of a river in his front, choosing rather to intrench himself a little
behind it, and await an attack. Grant sent the corps of Hancock
and Warren across the river, at points four miles apart. Lee thrust
the bulk of his force like a wedge between the two columns, securing
a chance of striking one of them when it could not be supported by
the other. Grant, appreciating this manoeuvre, brought back his col
umns, and on the 26th resumed his turning movements, which were,
within a few days, to bring both armies to their old fighting-ground
on the Chickahominy. While on the North Anna, Lee was reen
forced by about 15,000 men, — hardly half as many as he had lost ;
so that, relatively to his opponent, he was weaker than at the opening
of the campaign. Lee had been able to receive these reinforcements
because of the utter failure of a part of Grant's plan of campaign.
18(14.] SECOND BATTLE OF COLD HARBOR. 577
Sigel was to operate in the valley of the Shenandoah. On the 15th
of May he encountered Breckinridge, and was badly de- Minorope_
feate'd. He was i-emoved from the command, which was ratlons-
given to Hunter, who met with no better success, and retreated by
a wide detour, leaving Breckinridge free to join Lee.
At the opening of the campaign, Butler, in command of the Army
of the James, 25,000 strong, lay at Yorktown. He was to move
toward Richmond, and at least to seize Petersburg. He moved
early in May, but his plans were poorly made, and worse executed.
Beauregard, now in command of the Department of South Virginia,
outgeneraled him, and on the 16th Butler found himself "bottled
up," as he phrased it, at Bermuda Hundreds, a peninsula formed by
a sharp bend of the James, twenty miles south of Richmond. Things
had gone badly in Virginia, except where operations had been con
ducted under the immediate eye of Grant.
Grant's turning movement brought him at the doge of May to the
Chicka hominy, near the place where the battle of Cold
Harbor had been fought two years before. Lee was already tie of cow
there, and the position had been strongly fortified. Grant
resolved to attack the Confederates in their intrenchments ; for if
they were defeated here, they could only escape by going up the
river, while Sheridan's cavalry might probably gain their front, cut
ting off their retreat. Preliminary operations were begun on the
31st of May. But the real battle was on the od of June. In the
gray dawn, and under a drizzling rain, F. C. Barlow's division of
Hancock's corps struck the first line of the Confederate intrench
ments, and carried it. A hailstorm of lead was poured upon them
from an interior line. They faced this for a quarter of an hour,
and then fell back behind a low ridge, leaving half their number
behind them. Gibbon's division met with no better success; Smith's
division, of the Army of the James, fought a little longer upon an
other point, with equal and equally unavailing valor. But the whole
battle lasted hardly an hour, when the attack was abandoned. It
had cost the Federals not less than 7,000 men ; the Confederates
losing fewer than half as many.
The battle decided that the campaign must take the form of a
siege of Richmond. Two courses were open to Grant.
& .On the
He might invest the citv from the north, or, crossing the chickahom-
* iny .
Chickahominy and the James, besiege it from the south.
The latter plan was chosen. For a few days longer the armies
lay confronting each other on the Chickahominy, Grant gradually
extending his intrenchments to the south, Lee extending his works
in the same direction, the two lines being so close together that
VOL. iv. 37
578
GRANT IN VIRGINIA.
[CHAP. XXII.
men on each side were picked off by sharpshooters while working in
the trenches. The continuous skirmishing was interrupted only on
the 7th of June, when there was a brief truce to enable each side to
bury its dead.
The movement to the James was fairly begun upon the 12th, when
Warren's corps crossed the Chickahominy, by the Long
The march . . r i
to the .bridge, masking the movements of the other corps, which
marched by longer routes ; Smith's division of the Army of
the James going to the Pamunkey, whence it sailed down the York and
A Picket Guard.
up the James, rejoining Butler at Bermuda Hundreds, on the 14th.
Lee could not be long ignorant of this movement, which he was unable
to obstruct. He supposed that it was Grant's purpose to move upon
Richmond by the north bank of the James. He therefore crossed the
Chickahominy, and fell back to the strong intrenchments in front of
Richmond. His army there, including those which Beauregard had
brought from North Carolina, numbered 70,000. Grant's force, in
cluding Butler's Army of the James, numbered 150,000. The
Federal columns moved rapidly, and on the evening of the 13th
came in sight of the James, across which a pontoon bridge, two
thirds of a mile long, had been laid, over which, and by means
1864.]
SHERMAN AT THE SOUTH.
579
of boats, the army crossed ; the passage occupying three days. It
was soon in the position from which Grant proposed to conduct
the investment of Richmond, although it took the form of the siege
of Petersburg, eighteen miles distant, and on the opposite side of the
James River.
Between the battle of the Wilderness and the close of the fight
ing upon the Chickahominy was a period of thirty-seven days, dur
ing which Grant lost 54,551 men, of whom 9,856 were reported as
" missing." Lee lost not far from
42,000, of whom about 8,500 were
prisoners. Besides these were con
siderable losses in the engagements
between Butler and Beauregard
near Bermuda Hundreds, and in
minor operations in various por
tions of Virginia. Probably not
fewer than 100,000 men, on both
sides, were killed, wounded, or cap
tured within a little more than five
weeks.
After its defeat at Chattanoo
ga, late in November, 186-3, the
Confederate Army of Tennessee
retreated thirty miles southeast
ward to Dalton, near the northern
boundary of Georgia. Towards
the close of December Bragg was superseded in the command of
this army by J. E. Johnston. The authorities at Richmond
desired that he should advance against the Federal forces,
and drive them from Tennessee. His available army at Dalton then
numbered 41,000, but he was promised reinforcements which would
give him 75,000.
The command of all the Federal forces in this region had been
given to Sherman. His department comprised the Army Shermanis
of the Cumberland, under Thomas; the Army of the Ten- pl!m
nessee, under McPherson ; and the Army of the Ohio, under Scho-
field. On the 10th of April these armies numbered 180,000 men
present for duty. In explaining his plan of operations, he wrote to
Grant : " The most difficult part of my problem is that of provis
ions. But in that I must venture. Georgia has a million of inhabi
tants. If they can live, we should not starve/'
From Dalton to Atlanta the distance in a direct line is about eighty
miles, but considerably more as measured by the roads actually trav-
Oliver P. Morton, War-governor of Indiana.
580
SHERMAN'S MARCH TO THE SEA. [CHAP. XXII.
ersed. Both armies had to depend for supplies upon what could be
brought by railway. Sherman drew his from Chattanooga, Nashville,
and even Louisville, hundreds of miles away, by a single line of rail
way, liable to be broken at any point. Johnston received his supplies
likewise by a single railway line, from Atlanta. If that were to be
interrupted in his rear, his army would in a few days be starved out.
The campaign from Dalton to Atlanta took the essential form of a
continuous movement by Sherman upon Johnston's line of supply,
and the consequent falling back
by Johnston, from every posi
tion as soon as it was likely to
be turned. Both generals per
ceived that this was likely to
be the shape which the opening
campaign would take. Each
knew very nearly the force
which his opponent could bring
against him. On May 1st,
Johnston had at Dalton a little
more than 42,000 effective
men ; Sherman had, close by,
not quite 100,000. Within a
month Johnston received reen-
forcements, raising his force
i — irrespective of losses — to
64,000. Sherman also was re-
enforced from time to time, so
that, except at rare intervals,
the Federal army outnumbered the Confederates two to one.
Sherman had no intent to attack Johnston at Dalton, but undertook
to turn him out of it by a movement upon Resaca, fifteen
miles to the south. Folk's corps from Alabama was already
there, and on the 13th the Confederates fell back from Dalton to
Resaca. The operations during the remainder of May presented al
most uniform features. Johnston fell back from position to position as
he found himself outflanked. "All this time," says Sherman, "a con
tinual battle was in progress by strong skirmish lines, taking advan
tage of every species of cover, and both parties fortifying
each night by rifle trenches, many of which grew to be as
formidable as first-class works of defence. Occasionally one
party or the other would make a dash in the nature of a sally, but it
usually sustained a repulse."
The early days of June were occupied by both armies in manoeuvres
Joseph E. Johnston.
Resaca.
1'rogress
of the cam
paign
1864.] BATTLE OF KENESAW MOUNTAIN. 581
against each other, the result of which was that on the 10th the Con
federates were found strongly posted upon three contiguous Kenesaw
hills, known as Kenesaw, Pine Mountain, and Lost Mountain. Mouutahl-
" On each of these hills," says Sherman, " the enemy had signal sta
tions, and fresh lines of parapets. Heavy masses of infantry could be
distinctly seen, and it was manifest that Johnston had chosen his
ground well, and had prepared for battle ; but his line was at least ten
miles in extent — too long, in my estimation, to be held by his force,
then estimated at 60,000."
Three weeks were occupied in movements and counter movements ;
and then Sherman determined to attack the fortified lines of the en
emy. The attack was made on the morning of June 27th. Both
commanders agree as to the gallantry of the assault and the complete
ness of the repulse. Johnston, speaking of the decisive point, says :
" The Federal troops pressed forward with the resolution always dis
played by the American soldier when properly led. After maintain
ing the contest for three quarters of an hour, they retired unsuccess
ful, because they had encountered intrenched infantry, unsurpassed
by that of Napoleon's Old Guard, or that which followed Wellington
into France, out of Spain." Sherman says: " This was the hardest
fight of the campaign, up to that date. About nine o'clock the troops
moved to the assault, and all along our lines for ten miles a furious
fire of musketry was kept up. At all points the enemy met us with
determined courage and in great force. By 11.30 the assault was in
fact over, and had failed. We had not broken the rebel line at
either point, but our assaulting columns held their ground within a
few yards of the rebel trenches, and there covered themselves with
a parapet." The Confederate loss in this engagement was 808 men,
killed and wounded : the Federal, about 2,500. The direct attack
had failed : but simultaneous movements compelled Johnston to evac
uate the strong position, abandoning the mountain region, and falling
back into the level country watered by the Chattahoochee, wherein
Atlanta is situated, the intrenchments of which, says Johnston, had
for a month been strengthened by the labor "of all the negro laborers
which could be collected."
The passage of the Chattahoochee by Sherman, about the mid
dle of July, was one of the most brilliant operations of
*' .11T1 . ••• i -i TT- Johnston
the war. Still Johnston was nowise disheartened. -His superseded
army, on the 10th of July, after all its losses, numbered
something more than 50,000 effective men. Besides these, Gover
nor Brown, of Georgia, promised to give him within ten days
10,000 State militia. On the 17th of July, Johnston was surprised
by the receipt of an order from the Confederate Secretary of War
582
SHERMAN'S MARCH TO THE SEA. [CHAP. XXII.
Battle of
Atlanta.
relieving him from command and appointing Hood in his place. Be
fore noon of next day this change of commanders was known to Sher
man. kt I immediately inquired," says he, " about Hood, and learned
that he was bold even to rashness, and courageous in the extreme.
I inferred that the change of commanders meant "fight.' This was
just what we wanted; that is, to fight upon open ground, on anything
like equal terms, instead of being forced to run up against prepared
intrenchments ; but at the same time, the enemy, having Atlanta
behind him, could choose the time and place of attack, and could at
pleasure mass a superior force on our weakest points. Therefore we
had to be constantly ready for sallies."
Hood sallied more than once against the Federal armies which were
slowly closing in towards Atlanta. The fiercest of these
sallies took place on July 22d ; the action being commonly
called the Battle of Atlanta. It was fought mainly, on the Federal
side, by McPherson's Army of the
Tennessee. McPherson was killed
a little before noon, and the com
mand of his army devolved upon
Logan. The assault by the Con
federates failed at every point.
The month of July was one of
constant fighting upon a greater
or smaller scale.
The siege of Atlanta continued
until September 1st. "The posi
tion," says Sherman, " was healthy,
with ample supply of wood, water,
and provisions. The skirmish lines
were held close up to the enemy,
and kept up a continuous clat
ter of musketry. The main lines
were held further back, adapted
to the shape of the ground, with muskets loaded and stacked for
capture of use- '^le field-batteries were in select position, covered
by handsome parapets, and occasional shots from them
gave life and animation to the scene. The men loitered about
the trenches carelessly, or busied themselves in constructing huts.''
The main efforts of Sherman were directed to the destruction of
the railroads centering at Atlanta. Hood, finding that it was im
possible to prevent this, evacuated the town, which was
occupied by the Federal army on the oth. The entire Fed
eral loss during the whole campaign from Dal ton to Atlanta was 4,423
James B. McPherson.
1804.]
HOOD DEFEATED AT NASHVILLE.
583
killed, 22,822 wounded, and 4,442 missing, 31,687 in all. The Con
federate loss was 3,044 killed, 18,962 wounded, and 12,983 prisoners,
34,979 in all.
The capture of Atlanta had effected only a part of the object of the
campaign, for Hood's army, still nearly 40,000 strong, had escaped;
and although Sherman had fully twice as many, he thought it use
less to pursue. He therefore resolved to convert Atlanta Defeatof
into a purely military post, and ordered all the inhabitants IIood-
to leave the town. Hood lingered in the neighborhood until the close
of September, when he set out upon life fatal expedition to Tennessee;
the original purpose being to destroy the railroads by which the Fed
eral army was supplied. Sherman anticipated the movement, and
sharp fighting took place about Allatoona. Hood pressed on until he
reached Resaca about the middle of October. Thence he moved to
wards Nashville by a wide circuit. Thomas had already been sent
there. Hood appeared before. Nashville early in December. On the
19th he was attacked by Thomas. Fierce fighting ensued, lasting
two days, ending in the total rout of the Confederates.
Sherman had already set out on his long march from Atlanta
to the sea, a distance of two hundred and twenty-five miles Themareh
in a direct line. He had made sure that there was no totheSea-
force in the way which could impede his march, the object of which
was, first to destroy the railroads in Georgia, which would damage
584
SHERMAN'S MARCH TO THE SEA. [CHAP. XXII.
the Confederacy even more than the seizure of the Mississippi had
done, and then to unite with Grant. All the store-houses, machine-
shops, and depots in Atlanta were destroyed by fire and powder, and
on the 16th of November the march was begun. The army num
bered about 60,000 men of all arms, all non-combatants and sick hav
ing been sent north. The force was divided into two wings, one
under Howard, the other under Slocum, each wing consisting of two
corps ; the cavalry, under Kilpatrick, receiving orders directly from
Sherman. The army was to live upon the country. The soldiers were
forbidden to enter any dwelling-houses, but when in camp they were
allowed to gather vegetables and drive in any stock which was in
sight of the encampment. Wherever
the army was unmolested, no houses
or mills were to be destroyed, but if
guerillas should appear, or if roads
were obstructed or bridges burned, the
army commanders were to " order and
enforce a devastation more or less re
lentless, according to the measure of
the local hostility." The cavalry and
artillery were to appropriate freely
such horses and mules as they needed,
" discriminating between those of the
rich, who are usually hostile, and the
poor and industrious, who are usually
neutral or friendly."
Appeals earnest and almost frantic
were put forth to the people to stay the march of this army. Beau-
regard, writing from Corinth on the 18th of November, thus urges
the people of Georgia : u Arise for the defence of your native soil.
Obstruct and destroy all the roads in Sherman's front, flank, and
rear, and his army will soon starve in your midst. I hasten to join
you in the defence of your homes and firesides." On the same day
Senator B. H. Hill wrote from Richmond, his letter being "cordially
endorsed " by Mr. Seddon, then Secretary of War : "• You have now
the best opportunity ever yet presented to destroy the enemy. Put
everything at the disposal of our generals. Every citizen with his
gun, and every negro with his spade and axe, can do the work of a
soldier. You can destroy the enemy by retarding his march." Half
a dozen Georgian members of Congress wrote on the 19th : " We
have had a special conference with President Davis and the Secre
tary of War, and are able to assure you that they have done and are
still doing all that can be done to meet the emergency that presses
Henry W. Slocum.
"GLORY! HALLELUJAH!" AN INCIDENT OF SHERMAN'S MARCH.
1864.] CAPTURE OF SAVANNAH. 585
upon you. Let every man fly to arms. Remove your negroes, horses,
cattle, and provisions from Sherman's army, and burn what you can
not carry. Burn all bridges, and block up all roads in his route.
Assail the invader in front, flank, and rear, by night and by day.
Let him have no rest." But all these urgent appeals came to nothing.
There were indeed in Central Georgia few men capable of responding
to them. Almost every able-bodied man had been brought into the
army. Some were with Lee in Virginia ; the rest were with Hood in
his wild expedition into Tennessee. Only upon two or three occa
sions was there anything like an attempt to interfere with Sherman's
operations, and these were mainly limited to endeavors to obstruct
the work of detached parties who
were engaged in destroying the
railroads.
Sherman's march was little
more than a grand military prom
enade, made somewhat difficult
toward the close by rainy weather,
and the swampy nature of the
country, which required miles of
roads to be corduroyed to enable
the trains to pass. "• But," says
he, "• no opposition from the ene
my worth speaking of was en
countered until the heads of the
columns were within fifteen miles
of Savannah, when all the roads John A' Andrew' War-g°vernor of Massachusetts.
leading to the city were obstructed more or less by felled timber,
with earthworks and artillery ; but these were easily turned, and the
enemy driven away."
On the evening of the 10th of December the heads of the several
columns were from three to eight miles from Savannah, Captureof
where Hardee had got together a force of about 15,000 Savaunah-
men. As the Federal army approached the city, some show of re
sistance was made. Torpedoes and shells had been buried in the
ground, by the explosion of which several men were wounded. The
Confederate prisoners were compelled to remove these. On the day
before, three scouts had been sent to communicate with the fleet.
They hid by day in the rice swamps, paddled down the river by night,
and were picked up by a gunboat. They bore this despatch from How
ard : " We have had perfect success, and the army is in fine spirits."
This was the first tidings received from Sherman's army during the
month which had passed since it had cut loose from Atlanta.
586
SHERMAN'S MARCH TO THE SEA. [CHAP. XXII.
Fort McAllister, fifteen miles below Savannah, was the only real
obstacle in the way of communication with the fleet. It was a strong
redoubt, mounting 24 gnns, with a garrison of 200 men. It was
carried on the 13th, after a brave resistance. Sherman now de
manded the surrender of the city, which was refused by Hardee. It
seemed that Savannah could only be captured by regular siege, and
preparations were made for this. But, during the night of the 21st,
Hardee evacuated the city, marching his force toward Charleston ;
and Sherman took possession of it on the following day. Sherman
wrote to the President : " I beg to present to you as a Christmas gift
the city of Savannah, with 150 heavy guns and plenty of ammunition ;
also, about 25.000 bales of cotton." This message reached the Pres
ident on Christmas eve.
This march to the sea, more than 800 miles by' the roads travelled,
occupying a month, cost the Federals in all 785 men, killed,
wounded, and missing. The Confederate prisoners num
bered 1,338 ; of their loss in killed and wounded, there are no records.
During the march, more than 20,000 bales of cotton were burned,
and an immense amount of provisions and stores was seized. But,
what was of far more injury to the Confederacy, 320 miles of railroad
were destroyed, severing the last links of communication between the
Confederate armies in Virginia and the West. Saving the immense
amount of provisions and stock seized, very little damage was done
to private property, except in a few cases of extraordinary provoca
tion.
Ruins of Fort Sumter
CHAPTER XXIII.
THE CLOSING SCENES OF THE WAR.
CONDITION OF PRISONERS. — XAVAL AFFAIRS. — RICHMOND AND PETERSBURG. — OPEN
ING OF THE SIEGE OF PETERSBURG. — EAULY'S RAID IN MARYLAND AND PENNSYL
VANIA. — BURNSIDE'S MINE AT PETERSBURG. — PROGRESS OF THE SIEGE. — SHERI
DAN IN THE VALLEY OF THE SHENANDOAH. — THE ARMY IN WINTER QUARTERS.
— FORT STEEDMAN. — BATTLE OF FIVE FORKS. — EVACUATION OF RICHMOND. — THE
FALL OF PETERSBURG. — SHERMAN'S MARCH THROUGH THE CAROLINAS. — ASSASSI
NATION OF THE PRESIDENT. — CAPTURE OF JEFFERSON DAVIS.
SHERMAN'S march from the interior to the Atlantic coast was
the complement of Grant's movement upon Richmond. The general
Each was necessary to the other ; and neither alone, moTem«»t.
probably, would have brought so speedy an end to the rebellion, if,
indeed, it could have been brought to an end at all without the
combined operations of the two Generals. The resources of the
North were not exhausted, nor the zeal and determination of the
greater part of the loyal people abated. But delays were growing
dangerous. The Democratic Convention at Chicago, in August,
declared the war a failure, and nominated for the Presidency the
General — McClellan — on whom they had relied so confidently
to make it so. Well-meaning but timid and short-sighted persons
more than once embarrassed the President by placing him in a
position where to the unreflecting he might seem to be rejecting
overtures of peace, when in reality he was only cautiously avoiding
a cunning pitfall which some astute rebel had inveigled a superser-
viceable and credulous peacemaker to dig. Mr. Lincoln was rechosen
President in 1864, spite of these and other inimical influences ; but
it is questionable whether the faith and the strength of the Union
ists could have held out against them all another year, had Grant
met with the same ill-success as his predecessors.
But, whether so or not, it is at least plain that on this move
ment against the central power of the rebellion — Lee's army —
everything depended. Much else was done elsewhere, both by
land and sea, in these later months of the rebellion ; but, though
these events were in themselves important and interesting, as they
588
THE CLOSING SCENES OF THE WAR. [CHAI-. XXIII.
encouraged or discouraged either one side or the other, they did
not necessarily influence the final event. There were in the West
bodies of troops, large enough almost to be called armies, besides
the army with Sherman. The rebel General Forrest appeared in
Western Tennessee and Kentucky, early in the year, with 5,000
men, and gave the Union troops iu that region quite enough to do.
His only success of any moment, however, was the capture of Fort
Pillow, forty miles above Memphis, on the Mississippi
Fort Pillow. mi i- T» » •
Kiver. Ine tort, commanded by Major L. r. Booth, was
garrisoned by about 600 loyal Tennesseeans and blacks. The
Prisoners at Andersonville.
place was carried by assault ; but when resistance had ceased, offi
cers and men were massacred, even on the next day. The memory
of the old Indian wars, when the earlier savages tortured their
prisoners, was revived by the acts of the rebels at Fort Pillow.
No discrimination was made as to age, sex, condition, or color -
blacks and whites, women, children, and the sick were slaughtered ;
men were nailed to the floors and walls of huts by their clothing,
and the huts set on fire. These deeds of cruelty were afterwards
denied, in spite of evidence which cannot be gainsaid. The denial,
however, came only from the personal sensitiveness of Forrest.
For cruelty was the animating spirit of the rebellion, and the prison
discipline at Anderson, Salisbury, and other places where Union
prisoners were held, was a rigidly observed policy of delivering to
1864.] RICHMOND AND PETERSBURG. 589
death the greatest number, in the briefest time, by any means short
of acknowledged murder. As early as 1862, General Beauregard
wrote to Richmond to inquire if the bill for the execution of pris
oners had passed Congress ; it was, he said, " high time to proclaim
the black flag.''
Of the naval events of the year, the reduction of the forts in Mo
bile Bay by Admiral Farragut was the most important, as it Farragutat
closed the port, and assured the capture of the city itself Mobile-
the following March. Charleston harbor, however, was still open to
the blockade-runners. It was so completely commanded by the many
batteries 011 its low shores, that Dupont and Dahlgren successively
failed, the year before, to carry their fleets within these defences ;
and, though General Gillmore had reduced Fort Wagner, and made
Sumter almost a heap of ruins, the harbor was, to the end, a safe ref
uge to all vessels that succeeded in getting into it. In June, the
worst enemy to the commerce of the nation that the war
had produced — the Alabama — was sunk in the English theAi*-
bama
Channel, by Captain Winslow, of the Kearsarge. In Octo
ber the formidable ram Albernarle was blown up in Roanoke River
by Lieutenant William B. dishing. The small boat from which he
affixed a torpedo to the side of the ram was shattered as she went
down, and the dauntless sailor escaped by swimming.
In Virginia events had so shaped themselves that the campaign
must take the form of a siege of Richmond. Lee had every
reason to believe that with the 70,000 men under his com
mand he could hold his lines there against any force which might be
brought against them, so long as his army could be fed. Napoleon
laid it down as a maxim that 50,000 National-Guards, with 8,000 gun
ners, will defend a fortified capital against an army of 300,000. Rich
mond had become a well-fortified city. The works were not indeed
imposing in appearance. They consisted of low redoubts, with forts
at salient points ; but it had been demonstrated at Sebastopol that
such works, resolutely held, were fully equal to the elaborate con
structions of Vauban and Coehorn. Lee had more men by half than
Napoleon thought necessary for defence against twice the number
that Grant could bring to the siege.
That the actual siege of Richmond took the form of a siege of
Petersburg, was owing to the fact that this town was the
Petersburg.
focus to which several roads converged. laking these
roads in order, there were the Richmond Railroad, coming in from
the north; the City Point Railroad, on the northeast; the Norfolk
Railroad, on the southeast ; the Weldon Railroad, from the south ;
the Southside Railroad, from the west. Besides these were several
590 THE CLOSING SCEXES OF THE WAR. [CHAP. XXIII.
plank roads and turnpikes, diverging from Petersburg, like the spokes
of a wheel. These railroads, joined by short cross- lines, formed the
main means of supply for the Confederate force after those from the
Valley of the Shenandoah had been thoroughly interrupted.
Up to near the middle of June the importance of Petersburg had not
been appreciated on either side. It was practically unforti-
Attempt 12111 i T i 1111
upon Peters- tied, although slight works had been thrown up some months
before. These were so feeble that they were ridden over
early in May by 1,500 Federal cavalry. Grant had hardly crossed the
James, when he
perceived the
importance " of
Petersburg to
his plan of op
erations. On
the 14th of
.June a fee-
lily executed
movement was
made by Smith
against the
place. There
seems to be no
good reason
why it should
not have been
successful.
Grant came up
on the ground
next day, took
general charge,
and on the
evening of the
16th an attack
was made in great force. Beauregard with 8,000 men had come up
from South Carolina. The Confederates held their ground stoutly ;
but late in the day all seemed lost. Beauregard had gone from the
front into the town, when a horseman hurried after him to announce
that the Federals had carried the defences, and were about to enter
the city. The General returned toward the front, to find his troops
rushing back in full flight. A single fresh brigade opportunely ar
rived from before Bermuda Hundreds, and by its aid the flight was
stayed. Night put an end to the fighting ; and under cover of dark-
Destruction of the Albemarle.
1864.] SIEGE OF PETERSBURG. 591
ness Beauregard fell back to a position which he had already selected
for a further stand. It was wholly unfortified ; but the men, although
without proper intrenching tools, worked with a will, and before noon
of the 17th the position had come to be a strong one ; and moreover
Lee, now aware of the importance of Petersburg, had hurried down
large reinforcements from before Richmond. In the afternoon of the
17th, the contest was renewed for a portion of the original Confeder
ate line which had not been abandoned. At a cost of 4,000 men
Hancock and Burnside carried these points. A general assault was
ordered for the morning of the 18th. But when the skirmishers
moved forward, it was found that the enemy had fallen back into their
interior position, from which, says Grant, "they could not be dis
lodged, and consequently the army proceeded to envelop Petersburg,
as far as possible without attacking fortifications." The operations of
these four days cost the Federal army almost 10,000 men, of whom
more than 2,000 are set down as " missing." The Confederate loss
did not exceed 5,000.
The siege fairly began on the 19th of June. Within two days
the Federals had thrown up strong lines parallel with those opening of
of the Confederates. Grant's first attempt against the rail- thesie«e-
roads was made on the 21st, against the Weldon road. The re
gion to be traversed was covered by forests and swamps, and inter
sected by creeks all running southward, which had to be crossed by
the Federal force, while between them ran several good roads by
which the Confederates, coming from Petersburg, could strike the
advancing columns in the flank. The operation was confided to the
corps of Wright and that of Hancock, now temporarily commanded
by Birney. On the morning of the "22d, Hill flung his corps upon
these, and, aided by Longstreet, checked the movement. This effort
cost the Federals not far from 4,000 men. At the same time Kautz's
and Wilson's divisions of cavalry had gone by a wide detour to strike
the Weldon and Danville railroads. They were so far successful as
to destroy many miles of rails ; but in returning they met with re
peated disasters, losing at least 1,000 men, and rejoining the army in
wretched plight. Yet it took three weeks to repair the injury done
to the roads by this expedition. Then Lee had only thirteen days'
rations for his army. To feed it, the Commissary-general had to offer
the market price for wheat still standing uncut or shocked in the field.
This price had been one dollar a bushel in specie, or twei>ty dollars
in Confederate currency, and from that it rose at a bound to forty
dollars. That is, Confederate paper, which had been current at twenty
dollars for one in specie, fell suddenly to forty for one, then rapidly to
sixty for one, and would soon have been utterly worthless had not the
59:2
THE CLOSING SCENES OF THE WAR. [CHAP. XXIII.
government sold specie at the rate of one dollar for sixty in paper.
The bankruptcy of the rebel government was Grant's potent ally.
This cavalry expedition, in some respects disastrous, did much to
hasten that bankruptcy. Grant, looking back after a year, was jus
tified in affirming that " the damage suffered by the enemy in this
expedition more than compensated for all the losses we sustained."
But during the summer the Confederate army of Northern Vir-
condition of gin^ was to all appearance more threatening than at any
theamriep. former period of the campaign. After all its losses it was
nearly as strong as it was when it moved upon Grant in the Wilder-
Petersburg.
ness, foiled him at Spottsylvauia, held him in check upon the North
Anna, and defeated him upon the Chickahominy. The efficiency of
the Federal army had in the mean while been greatly impaired. Its
numbers had been kept up, but it had lost well-nigh half of its best
officers and men. Not a few of the recruits, brought in by enormous
bounties, were poor material for soldiers. Even the tried veterans
lacked much of their old determination. Now when in the Weldon
movement the Second corps, which had been recognized as the best
in the army, fell back, losing more in missing than in killed and
wounded, it becajne clear that there must be a pause for reorganiza
tion and recuperation.
Lee had become so confident in the invulnerability of his position
that he ventured to detach a considerable force to the aid of Early,
18W.] SIEGE OF PETERSBURG. 593
who had for some time been operating in the Valley of the Shenan-
doab. The defences of Washington had been almost stripped Earl.-s
of troops to reenforce the Army of the Potomac, and the raid-
rebels hoped that the Federal capital might be taken by a sudden
dash. Early made the attempt. He moved rapidly into Maryland,
and on the 10th of July came within six miles of Washington, hav
ing met with scarcely a show of resistance. But he halted for two
days, and that delay was fatal to his purpose. Grant had sent forward
the Sixth corps from before Petersburg, and the Nineteenth, which
had come by water to Hampton Roads, having borne its share in
Banks's unlucky Red River expedition. They reached Washington
just in time ; and on the 12th Early retreated across the Potomac,
carrying with him no little booty. So feebly was he pursued that a
fortnight after he was emboldened to make a raid into Pennsylvania.
The cavalry, 3,000 strong, reached Chambersburg on the 30th. A
ransom of $200,000 in gold was demanded for the town; this not being
forthcoming, it was given to the flames, hardly one house in three
escaping. All these disasters were largely due to the want of an
efficient commander in this Department, and early in August Grant
visited Harper's Ferry to provide a remedy. The result was Hunter's
resignation, and the appointment of Sheridan to command all the
troops in West Virginia and about Washington.
Towards the end of July active operations before Petersburg were
resumed. A division of Butler's armv had crossed the T
v liuriJoHU; a
James some time before and established itself ten miles be- minc-
low Richmond. Grant now planned a movement, one object of which
was to cause Lee to detach a considerable part of his army from
Petersburg, when a direct assault was to be made upon the works.
This was to be favored by the explosion of a mine which had been
run under a fort at the centre of the Confederate line. The mine,
planned by Burnside, was 520 feet long, with lateral branches at the
head 40 feet in either direction, and charged with 8,000 pounds of
gunpowder. It was exploded on the afternoon of July 30th. The
fort was blown up, leaving a crater 200 feet long, 60 feet wide, and
30 feet deep, into which troops were poured for the assault of the
Confederate line. Nothing could have been worse executed than the
movements which followed. A force of' fully 50,000 men had been
placed in readiness to follow up the explosion. The crater was
absolutely crowded with men, who were unable to climb its sides.
The Confederates from the brink poured down a plunging fire.
Owing to misconception of orders, no effective movement was made,
and after eight hours the troops were ordered to leave the crater,
which could be done only by a narrow passage. This attempt cost
VOL. iv. 38
594 THE CLOSING SCENES OF THE WAR. [CHAP. XXIII.
4,000 men, of whom nearly half were taken prisoners. The Con
federate loss, including the regiment which garrisoned the fort, and
was blown up with it, was not a quarter so many. Grant says : u The
cause of the disaster was simply the leaving of the passage of orders
from one to another down to an inefficient man. I blame his seniors
also for not seeing that he did his duty, all the way up, to myself."
One result of this incident was that Burnside, at his own request,
progress of was relieved, and his corps given to Parke. It was also
tin- siege. made evident that the works at Petersburg were too strong
to be carried by a direct assault upon their centre. But so long were
the Confederate lines that it seemed the extremities must be weakly
held, and the attempts were henceforth directed upon one or the other
of these points. On the 18th of August Hancock crossed the James,
as if to move straight upon Richmond, and soon came upon the in
trenched line of the Confederates. For four days there was some
sharp righting, but with no decisive issue. The losses on each side
were about 1,500. On the 18th another attempt was made by
Warren upon the Weldon road. This was measurably successful ;
but it cost the Federal army 4,500 men, of whom more than 3,000
were missing. It was resolved to destroy the road for several miles
below the point held by Warren. A part of Hancock's corps was
sent for this purpose on the 21st, and during the next four days
several miles of the road were broken. But Lee, recognizing the
necessity of thwarting this attempt, assailed Hancock with a superior
force, and after hard fighting the Federals were repelled. Out of
8,000 men, Hancock lost 2,400, of whom nearly three fourths were
missing.
For five weeks there was almost unbroken quiet. The two armies
Sheridan seemed to have coine to a dead-lock. Each lay behind in-
an<i Kariy. trenchments too strong for the other to assail. Grant was,
however, tightening his hold upon what he had won, and making
it a base for further acquisitions. In the mean while, important
operations were going on in other quarters, notably by Sheridan
against Early in the Valley of the Shenandoah. On the 19th of
September Early was badly defeated near Winchester, and again on
the 21st at Fisher's Hill, twelve miles to the south. Sheridan
then proceeded to devastate the valley. " The whole country," he
says, tk from the Blue Ridge to the North Mountain, has been ren
dered untenable for a rebel army. I have destroyed over two
thousand barns filled with wheat and hay and farming implements,
over seventy mills filled with flour and wheat. I have driven in
front of the army over four thousand head of stock, have killed
and issued to the troops not less than three thousand sheep ; a
1864.]
WINCHESTER AND PETERSBURG.
595
large number of horses have also been obtained." He then went
northward, the army taking a position on Cedar Creek, twenty miles
from Winchester, while he went to Washington to consult with the
Secretary of War. Early, however, having been largely reenforced,
made a sudden attack at daybreak on October 8th. At first it was
successful, the Federal force being driven back, but a new line was
formed which held its ground. Sheridan had reached Winchester on
his return from Washington. Alarmed at the continued firing in the
distance, he rode rapidly and, outstripping his staff, alone to the front,
took command, and by the mid
dle of the afternoon the Confed
erates were totally routed. This
action closed the fighting in the
Valley of the Shenandoah.
During this month of active op
erations, comprising two impor
tant battles and numerous skir
mishes, Sheridan lost about
17,000 men, of whom 14,000
were killed and wounded, and
3,000 missing. Early lost not
far from 23,000, of whom 13,000
were prisoners.
After the capture of the Wei-
don road Grant turned his main
attention to the cutting of the
Southside Railroad. An attempt
was made on the 27th of Octo
ber. Nearly the whole army of the Potomac was to be engaged, di
rectly or indirectly. It proved a failure, and was aban- Winterat
doned by orders of Meade, who had it in charge. The Petersburs-
Federal loss was 1,300 killed and wounded, and 600 missing. The
Confederates lost quite as many in killed and wounded, and 1,200
prisoners. After this the Army of the Potomac went into winter
quarters behind its intrenchments, and no further important opera
tions were set on foot, although a constant picket and artillery fire
was kept up all along the opposing lines. During the winter the
Confederate army was often reduced to great straits. Thus on the
9th of December it had food for only nine days ; and on the 14th Lee
reported that his men were without meat. Opportunely several ves
sels arrived at Wilmington with supplies, which reached Richmond by
a circuitous route. But on the 15th of January, 1865, Fort Fisher,
which commands the port of Wilmington, was captured by a com-
John A. Wmslov
596 THE CLOSING SCENES OF THE \VAK. [CHAP. XXIII.
bined naval and military expedition under General Alfred H. Terry,
and that important avenue of supply was cut off.
As spring approached, the military problem took a ne\v form.
Sherman had set out on his march through the Carolinas, and Grant
proposed to prevent Lee from sending any part of his force southward.
On the 9th of February, 1865, Lee was made commander-
th^spring in-chief of all the military forces of the Confederacy.
campaign. -, . •• . , . .
Among his earliest acts in this capacity was to direct J. E.
Johnston to take command of all the troops in Georgia, South Caro
lina, and Florida, with orders to concentrate all available forces "and
drive back Sherman." But before the opening of the spring cam
paign Lee had come to the conclusion that Petersburg and Richmond
must be abandoned. There was still some ground for hope that the
war might be protracted in the mountainous region upon the borders
of Virginia and North Carolina. He wished to get his army safely
out of Petersburg ; Grant wished to prevent him from doing so.
The closing campaign in Virginia, which was substantially the close
Fort of the war, was begun on the 24th of March, when Grant
steedman. issue(j an order for a grand movement, to be made on the
29th against the Confederate right. Lee, to prevent the execution of
this, made on the 25th a sudden attack upon Fort Steedman, near
the centre of the Federal lines before Petersburg. He hoped that by
breaking through these he might so far cripple his opponent as to
render him incapable of a rapid pursuit. The attempt proved an
utter failure, the Confederates losing 3,000 men. Grant's movement
was begun at the appointed time, an important part being assigned
to Sheridan, who had now rejoined the Army of the Potomac.
On the 1st of April Sheridan encountered the bulk of Lee's dis-
Battieof posable army at Five Forks, the extreme point to which
Lee's lines had been extended, and won a decisive victory,
capturing more than 5,000 men. To defend this point Lee had al
most stripped the works at Petersburg. On the next day Grant as
sailed these works, and carried the exterior lines. Lee saw that the
end here had come, and telegraphed to Davis at Richmond that
Petersburg must be forthwith abandoned.
It was Sunday, and the tidings reached Davis while at church. He
Richmond l°s^ hardly a moment in making preparations to leave the
abandoned, city. That night was one of terror in Richmond. The mob
broke into riot, and plundered warehouses and dwellings. To add to
the confusion, Ewell, who commanded here, set fire to the bridges
and storehouses. The conflagration spread, and in a few hours one
third of Richmond was in flames. Early the next morning a small
body of the Federal force took possession of the Confederate capital ;
and something like order was soon restored.
1865.]
SIEGE OF PETERSBURG.
597
At night-fall of that Sunday a portion of the Confederate force still
clung to the strong interior lines of Petersburg, and the Thefa]i0f
Federal commanders thought there was to be hard fighting Pctersburg-
for their possession. At two o'clock on Monday morning the Con
federate pickets were still out. But the evacuation had begun hours
before. An hour later it was completed. The troops were all across
the Appomat-
tox, the only
bridge was in
flames, and the
air was lumi
nous with the
glare of burn-
i n g war e-
houses. Then
the noise of ex
plosions was
heard all along
the line from
Petersburg to
the James.
The Confeder
ates had blown
up all their
works, and
were in full re
treat. A Fed
eral brigade
was pushed
forward. It
was met by the
civic authori
ties, who an
nounced that
the city, hav
ing been evac
uated by the
army, was fully surrendered. At half-past four in the afternoon the
Union flag was raised upon the court-house at Petersburg.
When Lee evacuated Petersburg and Richmond his purpose was to
retreat to Danville, where he hoped to unite with Johnston. Le
The pressing necessity was to concentrate his forces, now
widely scattered. In all, they still numbered 40,000 men. His im-
Taking possession of Richmond.
Lee s re-
- treat.
598 THE CLOSING SCENES OF THE WAR. [CIIAI-. XXIII.
mediate purpose was to reach Burkesville, at the junction of two rail
roads, fifty-two miles from Richmond. If he could gain that point
ahead of the Federal army, he might destroy the roads in his rear
and escape present pursuit. He had gained some hours in time,
and had fair hope of success. But unexpected disaster awaited him.
He had marched out with rations for only a single day, though large
supplies were collected in his rear. These were to meet him at
Amelia Court House, half-way between Burkesville and Richmond.
But the trains bearing the supplies went straight on, and when, on
the morning of the 4th, Lee reached Amelia, there was no food for his
army, and he had to break up his force into foraging squads. This
enforced delay proved fatal ; for the Federal columns, now in rapid
pursuit, were close behind him, and upon his flank. On the 6th
Sheridan struck Swell's corps of the retreating army at Sailor's Creek,
routed it, and made 7,000 prisoners. The remainder of the Confed
erate army pressed wearily on, striking back fiercely when assailed
by the heads of the pursuing columns.
But it was evident to both sides that the end was near. On the
Lee's sur- ^th Grant wrote to Lee, proposing to receive the surrender
of his army. Lee replied that he did not yet think the case
hopeless; but wished to know what terms would be offered. Grant
replied that he would only insist that the men surrendered should not
take up arms against the Government of the United States until
properly exchanged. On the 9th, the two commanders met at Ap-
pomattox Court House, where the terms of surrender were formally
agreed upon. The substance of these was, that all officers and men
should be paroled ; all public property be turned over, and " this
done, each officer and man will be allowed to return to his home, not
to be disturbed by the United States authority so long as they ob
serve their paroles and the laws in force where they may reside."
The number paroled was 28,805, of whom not more than 8,000 had
muskets in their hands. The others had flung away their arms in
their weary flight. The surrender of Lee's army virtually brought
the war to a close.
But in the mean while Sherman's great army was marching through
Sherman's ^ne Carolinas, leaving devastation in its track. It left Sa-
"iZlghthe vamiah on the 1st of February, 60,000 strong. On the
17th it reached Columbia, the capital of South Carolina.
General Wade Hampton, who was here in command, ordered all the
cotton in the place to be brought into the public square, where fire
was set to it. A strong wind was blowing, which bore the burning
flakes in every direction, and the city was in flames in many places.
The fires were extinguished by the aid in part of the Federal soldiers.
.it :_<& •.-
1865.] SURRENDER OF THE CONFEDERATE FORCES. 599
Sherman says, " Our officers and men on duty worked well to extin
guish the flames ; but others not on duty, including officers who had
long been imprisoned there, rescued by us, may have assisted in
spreading the fire after it had begun." A large part of Columbia
was burned on the 8th of March. Continuing his advance, Sherman
entered North Carolina. Johnston endeavored to impede him, with
the small force which he could collect, not more than 24,000 men in
all. Several conflicts ensued, the most important being at Averys-
borough on the loth, and at Bentonville on the 18th.
The march was directed towards Raleigh. The Federal army was
almost there, when on the 14th of April Johnston, who had Johnston-s
learned of the surrender of Lee, proposed an armistice, with 8Urrender-
the view of arranging terms of surrender. These had been nearly
agreed upon, on terms highly favorable to the Confederates, when on
the 19th tidings came of the assassination of President Lincoln. On
Good Friday, April 14th, he had been shot in the theatre at Washing
ton, by John W. Booth, an actor, and died in a few hours. An un
successful attempt was made at the same time, by another ruffian, to
murder Mr. Seward, the Secretary of State, in his own house. The
acting President, Andrew Johnson, disapproved of the terms granted
by Sherman, and on the 26th the surrender was finally made upon
the same terms as those granted to the army of Lee. This surrender
was followed on the 14th of May by that of all the Confederate
forces east of the Mississippi, and on the 26th by that of all west of
the Mississippi, Texas included.
It was six weeks after the death of the President before these final
acts of submission were concluded ; but, as they were inevi
table, they were little else than formalities. Armed resis- ttonofMr.
tance had, for the most part, ceased before the cowardly
and purposeless assassination of Mr. Lincoln ; and though, probably,
he did not know that his life was the crowning sacrifice to the half-
savage, half-insane spirit of the slaveholders' insurrection, he knew, at
least, that the war was finished, that a new nation was born. His
prayer might well have been — " Lord, now lettest thou thy servant
depart in peace."
When Jefferson Davis fled from Richmond he was nowise con
vinced that the cause of the Confederacy was really lost.
From Danville he put forth a long proclamation to the peo- ana capture
pie, dated April 5th. The capture of Richmond, he said,
was indeed injurious to the cause. But Lee's army, " relieved from
the necessity of guarding particular points, will be free to move from
point to point, to strike the enemy far from his base. I will never
consent to abandon to the enemy one foot of the soil of any of the
600 THE CLOSING SCENES OF THE WAR. [CHAP. XXIII.
States of the Confederacy. Virginia shall be held and defended, and
no peace shall ever be made with the invaders of her territory. If by
the stress of numbers we should ever be compelled to a temporary
withdrawal from her limits, or those of any other border State, again
and again will we return, until the baffled and exhausted enemy shall
abandon in despair his endless and impossible task of making slaves
of a people resolved to be free." Davis, with his cabinet, remained
at Danville until the 10th, when he learned of the surrender of Lee's
army. He hurried to Johnston's headquarters at Goldsborough, in
North Carolina, and urged him to further hostilities , but that saga
cious General replied that there was nothing left for him but to follow
Lee's example.
Davis, with a small escort, fled southward, hoping to reach the Gulf
coast, and thence make his way out of the country. But bodies of
Federal cavalry were in swift pursuit. On the 10th of May a detach
ment under Colonel Pritchard, came upon him at Irwinsville, in the
heart of southern Georgia. He was captured without resistance,
while endeavoring to make his escape, partly disguised, wearing a
woman's water-proof cloak, with a shawl over his head and shoulders,
and carrying a pail in his hand, as though going to the spring for
water. History loves startling contrasts. None more striking can be
found anywhere upon its pages than the last solemn hours of the
President of the Union, and the last appearance of the President of
the Confederacy, while recognized by that title.
Davis was taken to Fortress Monroe, where he was kept in close
custody for several months under charge of high treason. Had he
been promptly tried, when public feeling ran high against him, as the
head of the rebellion, and while his supposed complicity in the assas
sination of Lincoln was believed in, he would, probably, have been
hanged as a traitor. But in course of time it was clear that he had
nothing to do with the plot for the murder of the President. Others
were quite as guilty as he of treason, and there seemed no good reason
for making him a special example. So when public feeling against
him had subsided he was set at liberty upon bail, and was never ar
raigned for trial.
With the administration of Andrew Johnson came the beginning
of the reconstruction of the Union, — a work badly begun, unwisely
carried on, and, at the end of fifteen years, still unfinished. For that
fifteen years the war may be said to have been continued on a peace
basis, but drawing, year by year, to its inevitable conclusion, as the
generation of the last slaveholders and their Northern adherents
gradually disappears.
[Fac-simile of President Lincoln's draft of the preliminary Proclamation of Emancipation, Sep
tember, 1862. From the original in the Library of the State of New York, Albany.— The
formal paragraph ending the Proclamation, and the signature, were added to this draft by a
cleric. The remainder is in Mr. Lincoln's handwriting. He afterward signed the en
grossed draft.]
/£-& /
Ltjcxr cf
£5~
fffi Crf^Q/Usn
'fct^of&ixw? /UL^l*s*viifL~\
/
.&-&> t/tJ /L&^/^^J^G-^ &~tL&£t^iZI /?fcu
ffr*-C-fi jL^fCe^i
cx^e£crlM^\/#yi
try ^^ot^ff^
00~fy?4/frd fL&^t^^J
/
feiM7 &&>* ^ ILGAw&siy ^ Ufa /v&^w p-f
0^^7 tfUMAaUejots CLsf*cbT&e^£~.!
/ /
Jl
O~d0~re&&^£V j
; £S * **^Z4 ^
/
d^rt
0 0
J3e (I e>ux1tti>'by the SeniSe <mJ Hume cf Rejrreseiutliuu ^ftKe. Untied
Eta*® Of -America in Congress afsembl^ ,'llal hereafter the Mowing
- , e owng
gaUle jromulgaipd. jts aa afflitionaL article of trarfcrflie^ovenimfinj
of -the annycr the UmstfL Staiei. and. shall ha .Qbwel anlobsffiveil aa
Ench i
Article — ..All offices or -persons an. the nnElary ur rmral service of
•flie UnHed States are jrohibited from emplpjtag- any of the forces -undo1
fhrir respective commands for the purpose tf Tetarnin^ tugitrres frOHLser-
Ticfi or laior. iviminayJiavB esKpedfrom anypersonj (a -whom. sucb_ser^
-vice or labor is cTaimecLto. "be due, and. any officer Vho shaH,te founi
. coniLmaraial of dflLaling- this
^
fini ^fipr its passage,
hu*~v^s£ QMjL£^ir*~/
SEC. 9. And, kr it further enacted^ That all "slaves of persons -KhD
phall hereafter be- ergnged. iru retellion against the gmxnnnent of the
United! Stales, or vho shall in. any way give aid or conuort thereto; escap
ing- from sucH pei^ons and laking- refuge wilhia 1he Imes of the army 5
and all slaves captured Jrom suck persons or deserted ty tbera. audJcomingj
•under tlic contro] of the government of the United. States ; and. all slaves
of such, persons ibund. on [or] being wfliiu am'place occupied by rebel
forces and aJ'teruai-ds occupied TJV the forces ut' the "United States, shall
be deemed, captives nf war, and shall be iarever ii'ee of their soaituda
and notogtim held as slaws.
SEC. 10. And Txs.it further rnatlti, Thabno slave escaping into anv
Slate. Tenitarj) or tlie District of Columbia, from any other State, shall
be delivered up, or in any •way-impeded or hindered ot bis liberlyrexcepl
for crime, or some offence against the laws, unless the person claiming' sail
fugitive shall first make oath, that the person to whom the labor ar service
of such fugitive is alleged to 7je*due is lus .lawful owner, and has not borafl
an ns against flieVnited.States in tlie pix-scnt ivl iellion,nor in an\-way given
aid <md cnmfint Oiereto ; andno person, engaged in the militaiy or iiavul
serrie« of 1hc tTnileil States sliall, under iuiy pretence -whatever, assume
to decide (Hi the v;ilidilynl' the claim of any person 1« tlie service <>r lalior
of any other person, n- surrender u|i any ,<ncli jxasoato the nlamiunl, ua
j> uiu of biiij dismissed liom Hie seniuc.
/Leo^-i^v^
/
<r
( t~far*s jtzfiji) pjisi&F&^EiZr*/
s*
TABLE OF DATES.
1779. Sullivan's Expedition.
1780. May, Capture of Charleston by the British.
July, Arrival of Rochambeau.
September, Arnold's Treason.
August 15, Battle of Caniden.
1781. January 17, Battle of Cowpens.
March 15, Battle of Guilford Court House.
September 7, Battle of Eutaw Springs.
October It), Cornwallis's Surrender at Yorktown.
1782. November 30, Preliminary Treaty of Peace signed.
1783. September 3, Final Treaty of Peace with Great Britain signed.
November 25, Evacuation of New York.
December 4, Washington takes leave of his officers.
1784. Jefferson's Northwest Ordinance proposed.
1786. Shays's Rebellion.
1787. Northwest Territory organized, and Ordinance adopted.
May 14, Constitutional Convention met at Philadelphia.
September 17, Constitution of the United States signed by the Delegates.
1788. June 21, Constitution ratified by New Hampshire, securing its Adoption.
1789. March 4, First Congress assembled in New York.
April 30, Washington inaugurated President.
1 790. Cotton-spinning established in the United States.
1791. First National Bank established.
1793. Wayne's campaign against the Indians.
Cotton Gin invented by Eli Whitney.
1794. The Whiskey Insurrection.
1795. Jay's Treaty ratified.
1797. March 4, John Adams inaugurated President.
1798. Alien and Sedition Laws enacted.
1799. Fries's Insurrection.
December 14, Death of Washington.
1801. March 4, Jefferson inaugurated President.
War with Tripoli.
1803. Louisiana purchased.
1804. Lewis and Clarke's Expedition.
1805. Treaty of Peace with Tripoli.
1806. Aaron Burr's Expedition to the Southwest.
Monroe and Pinkney Treaty, suppressed by Jefferson.
November 20, The Berlin Decree issued.
1807. Trial trip of Fulton's first steamboat.
608 TABLE OF DATES.
1807. November 11, The Orders in Council issued.
December 1 7, The Milan Decree issued.
December, The Embargo Bill passed.
1809. March 4, Madison inaugurated President.
1811. November 7, Battle of Tippecanoe.
1812. June 18, War declared against England.
August 16, Hull's surrender of Detroit.
1813. March 4, Madison inaugurated.
September 10, Perry's victory on Lake Erie.
October 5, Battle of the Thames.
Jackson's campaign against the Southern Indians.
1814. Campaign on the Niagara; Battles of Chippewa and Lundy's Lane.
August 25, Capture of Washington by the British.
September 11, Battle of Plattsburg.
December 15, Hartford Convention met.
December 24, Treaty of Peace signed at Ghent.
1815. January 8, Battle of New Orleans.
AVar with Algiers.
1816. United States Bank chartered.
First Seminole War.
1817. March 4, Monroe inaugurated President.
1818. Steam navigation begun on the Western lakes.
1820. Missouri Compromise passed.
1821. Ratification of Treaty of 1819, ceding Florida to the United States.
1825. March 4, John Quincy Adams inaugurated President.
1826. Murder of Morgan, and rise of the Anti-masonic party.
July 4, Death of John Adams and Thomas Jefferson.
First railroad built in the United States.
1829. March 4, Jackson inaugurated President.
1831. Garrison established " The Liberator. "
August, The Southampton Insurrection.
1832. The Black Hawk War.
Nullification in South Carolina.
1833. Removal of deposits from the United States Bank.
1835. Second Seminole War begun.
Texas declared her independence of Mexico.
1837. March 4, Van Buren inaugurated President.
1839. Capture of the Amistad, and trial of Africans.
1841. March 4, Harrison inaugurated President.
Case of the Creole.
1842. The Dorr War in Rhode Island.
The Prigg Case in the Supreme Court.
The Ashburton Treaty concluded.
1845. Texas annexed by joint resolution.
March 4, Polk inaugurated President.
1846. May 8, Battle of Palo Alto, beginning of the Mexican War.
August 8, David Wilmot introduced his Proviso in Congress.
1847. February 22. 23, Battle of Buena Vista.
March 27, Surrender of Vera Cruz.
September 14, City of Mexico occupied by the American forces.
1848. February, Treaty of Peace with Mexico concluded.
TABLE OF DATES. 609
1848. Gold discovered in California.
1849. March 4, Taylor inaugurated President.
1850. The Clay Compromises — including the Fugitive Slave Law — passed.
1853. March 4, Pierce inaugurated President.
Rise of the Know-Nothing Party.
1854. May 30, The Kansas-Nebraska Bill became a law.
1856. Lawrence, Kansas, sacked.
1857. March 4, Buchanan inaugurated President.
March 6, The Dred Scott case in the Supreme Court.
August 4, First message sent by Atlantic cable.
1859. October, John Brown's raid on Harper's Ferry.
1860. November, Lincoln elected President.
December 2, South Carolina seceded.
1861. January, Mississippi, Alabama, Florida, Georgia, and Louisiana seceded.
February, Texas seceded ; provisional Confederate Government organized.
March 4, Lincoln inaugurated President.
April 12, 13, Bombardment of Fort Sumter.
Ajiril 17, Virginia seceded.
April 19, First blood shed, in Baltimore.
May, Arkansas and North Carolina seceded.
June 10, Battle of Big Bethel.
July 21, Battle of Bull Run.
August 10, Battle of Wilson's Creek; death of General Lyon.
August 26, The Ilatteras Expedition sailed.
August 31, Fremont's Emancipation Proclamation issued.
October 29, The Port Royal Expedition sailed.
November 8, The rebel envoys taken from the Trent by Captain Wilkes.
1862. January 12, The Roanoke Expedition sailed.
February 15, Surrender of Fort Donelson.
March 9, Fight of the Merrimac and Monitor.
April 6, 7, Battle of Pittsburg Landing.
April 8, Surrender of Island Number Ten.
April 24, Capture of New Orleans by Farragut.
1862. May 4, Yorktown evacuated by the rebels; Battle of Williamsburg.
May 9, Hunter's Emancipation Order issued.
May 27, Battle of Hanover Court House.
May 31, Battle of Fair Oaks.
June 26, The Seven Days' battles before Richmond begun.
August 29, Battle of Groveton, or Second Bull Run.
September, Invasion of Maryland; Battle of Antietam.
The President's preliminary Proclamation of Emancipation issued.
December 13, Battle of Fredericksburg.
December 31 and January 2, Battle of Stone River.
1863. January 1, Emancipation proclaimed by the President.
May 2, Battle of Chancellorsville.
July 1-3, Battle of Gettysburg.
July 4, Surrender of Vicksbnrg.
July 8, Surrender of Port Hudson.
September 19, Battle of Chickamauga.
November 24, 25, Battle of Chattanooga.
1864. March, Banks's Red River Expedition.
VOL. iv. 39
6iO TABLE OF DATES.
1864. April 12, Massacre at Fort Pillow.
May 5,6, Grant's advance on Lee ; Battle of the Wilderness.
May 6, Sherman's Atlanta Campaign begun.
May 15, Sigel defeated by the rebels at Newmarket.
June 14, Grant crossed the James ; Siege of Petersburg begun.
June 19, Privateer Alabama sunk by the Kearsarge.
July 30, Explosion of the mine under the rebel works at Petersburg.
July 30, Chambersburg, Pa., burned by the rebels.
August 5, Battle of Mobile Bay.
September 1, Fall of Atlanta.
August and September, Sheridan's campaign in the Shenandoah Valley.
October 19, Battle of Cedar Creek.
October 27, Rebel ram Albemarle destroyed.
November 8, President Lincoln reflected.
November 13, Sherman's march to the coast begun.
November 30, Battle of Franklin, Tenn.
December 15, 16, Battle of Nashville.
December 21, Sherman entered Savannah.
1865. Januari/ 15, Fort Fisher captured by General Terrv.
February 17, Columbia, S. C., sui'rendered to General Sherman.
February 18, Charleston evacuated by the rebels.
April 1, Battle of Five Forks.
April 2, Richmond evacuated.
April 9, Surrender of Lee's army.
April 14, The President assassinated.
April 26, Surrender of Johnston's army.
May 8, Capture of Jefferson Davis.
ADMISSION OF STATES.
ORIGINAL, THIRTEEN.
ADMITTED UNDER THE CONSTITUTION.
New Hampshire.
Massachusetts.
Rhode Island.
Vermont, 1791.
Kentucky, 1792.
Tennessee, 1796.
Michigan, 1837.
Florida, 1845.
Texas, 1845.
Connecticut.
Ohio, 1803.
Iowa, 1846.
New York.
Louisiana, 1812.
Wisconsin, 1848.
New Jersey.
Pennsylvania.
Delaware.
Indiana, 1816.
Mississippi, 1817.
Illinois, 1818.
California, 1850.
Minnesota, 1858.
Oregon. 1S59.
Maryland.
Alabama, 1819.
Kansas, 1861.
Virginia.
North Carolina.
Maine, 1820.
Missouri, 1821.
West Virginia, 1863.
Nevada, 1864.
South Carolina.
Arkansas, 1836.
Georgia.
IXDEX TO THE FOUR VOLUMES.
A JiEKAS INDIANS, ii., 564.
^v ABERCROMBIE, GEN., at Albany, iii., 290; Ticon-
deroga, 297 et ,\f</.
ABERDEEN, witchcraft trials in, ii., 452.
ABERDEEN, LORD, on Texas, iv., 367.
ABINGDON, witch trials at, ii., 452
ABXAKIS, an Imlian tribe of Maine, i., 310 ; ii.,435,
512.
ABOLITIONISTS, EARLY, iii., 177 ; their purpose, iv.,
324 ; character, 327.
'ABRAHAM, PLAINS of. iii., 309, 445, 446.
ACADIA, derivation of name, i., 313, note : granted to
Ite Monts, 313; settlements in, destroyed, 327.
ACADIANS, deportation of the. iii , 273 et seq.
ACCOMAC. Berkeley at, ii., 305 et st</.
ACCOMAC COUNTY, Va., its loyalty, iii. ,52.
AciiTERCUL, Newark Bay, ii., 321 ; New Jersey, 350.
ACKI.AND, MAJOR, iii., 508 et se.q., 574: wounded,
5*9.
ACOMA, ancient town of, ii., 580, 531.
ACQUIDNKCK (Rhode Island) purchased, ii., 43.
ADAKS INDIANS, mission among, ii., 599, 602.
" ADAMS." THE, destroyed, iv., 216.
ADAMS, KOKT, iv., 117.
ADAMS, LIEUT. -COL., killed, iii., 586.
ADAMS, CHARLES FRANCIS, quoted, iv., 271 ; candi
date for Vice-president. 386 ; Minister to England,
460.
ADAMS, CLEMENT, his map, i., 133, 228.
ADAMS, JOHN, on New York Tories, iii., 459 : on in
dependence, 471 : opinion of Mecklenburg Resolu
tions, 476, note : letter of, 476, note ; pamphlet ou
government, 476 ; seconds Lee's Resolutions, 483 ;
of committee on declaration, 483 ; on declaration,
484, 4^5 ; as peace commissioner, 512 ; quoted, 617 ;
Commissioner in Paris, iv., 76 ; protects Northern
industries, 77 ; Minister to England, 95 ; chosen
Vice-president, 105; elected President, 127.
ADAMS, JOHN Q., as peace commissioner, iv., 209 : on
treaty of Clhent, 241 ; on slave-drivers, 264 : on dis
solution of the Union, 264, note ; elected President,
280 ; defends the right of petition, 338.
ADAMS, NEHEMIAH, iv., 398.
ADAMS, SAMUEL, writes the instructions to represent
atives, iii., 336: his regiments, 362 ; his resolution
concerning the tea, 371 ; on dangers to the govern
ment, iv., 9<j.
ADET, iv., 132.
ADVENTURE GALLEY, THE, iii., 33, 35.
AFFIRMATION BY FRIENDS, iii., 184.
AGAMENTICUS. (See York, Me.)
AGASSIZ, PROF. Louis, i., 11.
AGAWAM. (See Springfield, Mass )
AGNEW, GENERAL, iii., 495.
AGOUHANNA, Indian king at Hochelaga, i., 185.
AGREDA, MARIA DE JESUS, ii., 594.
AGUAYO, MARQUIS DE, ii., 600.
AHUMATEC. the Indian queen, i., 272.
AIKE.N, \VILLIAM, candidate for speaker, iv.,418.
Aix LA CHAPELLE. Treaty of, iii., 252, 254.
AKANSEA, town of Arkansas Indians, ii.,508.
ALABAMA (State of), settled, ii., 523.
" ALABAMA,'- THE, sunk by the Kearsarge, iv., 589.
ALAMO, Massacre of, iy.,362.
ALBANIA, New Jersey, ii.. 320.
ALBANY [Fort Orange], ii., 266; also Willemstadt,
350; Indian trade at, iii., 2 ; refuses to acknowl
edge Leisler, 17 ; asks for help, 17 : French and
Indian attack on, 19 ; reenforced, 20 ; confederate
convention at, 201.
" ALBEMARLE, '' THE, destroyed, iv., 589.
ALBEMARLE, DUKF. OF. (See Monk.)
ALBEMARLE, EARL OF, of Virginia, iii., 78.
ALBEMARLE SOUND, settlements, ii., 271.
ALBERT DE LA PIERRIA, at Archer's Creek, i., 194.
ALDEN, JOHN, on Plymouth Rock, i., 397.
ALDEN, CAPT. JOHN, accused of witchcraft, ii., 463.
ALDEN, COL. ICHABOD, iii., 610.
'•ALERT," THE, captured by the President, iv., 192.
ALEXANDER VI., divides the globe, i., 136.
ALEXANDER (MOOAKAM or WAMSUTTA), a U'ampanoag
sachem, ii., 404.
ALEXANDER, N. Y. lawyer, iii. ,230, note.
ALEXANDER, SIR WILLIAM, receives the grant of Nova
Scotia, i., 332.
ALGIERS, tribute to, iv., 154 : war with, 243.
ALGONKIN INDIANS, missions among, ii., 501.
ALII:N AND SEDITION LAWS, iv., 129.
ALIENATION of the colonies, iii., 329.
ALLEN, representative of Mason claim, iii., 126.
ALLEN, LIEUT., killed, iii., 510.
AI.I.KN, ETHAN, expedition against Ticonderoga, iii.,
433, 435 ; sent to Canada. 438 ; joins expedition
against, and is captured, 440.
ALLEN, HEMAN, iii., 433, note.
ALLEN, IRA, commissioner from Vermont, iv., SO.
ALLEN, SAMUEL, of N. H., ii., 432 et seq.
ALLERTON, ISAAC, at Plymouth, i., 398.
ALLERTON, JOHN, at Plymouth, i., 393, note.
ALLOUEZ, FATHER, Lake Huron, ii., 501.
ALMAGRURIN, street in Lisbon so called, i., 64.
ALMY sent to England, iii., 27.
ALRICIIS, JACOB, of New Amstel, ii., 161, note, 162
et seq.; Md. envoys, 249, 250.
ALTAMAHA RIVER, boundary of Ga., ii., 560.
ALTHAM, JOHN, missionary in Marvland, i., 486.
ALTON, 111., riots in, iv., 331.
ALTONA, Dutch post at Christina, ii., 162.
ALVORD, JAMES 0., iv., 342.
AMADAS, PHILIP, expeditions of, i., 241, 249.
AMBO POINT (Perth Ainboy), iii., 6.
AMBRISTER, ROBERT C., trial and execution, iv., 254.
AMEJES INDIANS, ii., 580.
AMELIA ISLAND, seized, iv.,248 ; value of, 260.
AMERICAN CONTINENT, antiquity of, i., 11; pre-his-
toric people in, 20 ; its name, 127.
AMERSFOORT [FlatlandsJ, Long Island, election at,
ii.. 122.
AMERY, JONATHAN, of S. C., ii., 371.
AMHERST, SIR JEFFERY, expedition to Louisburg,iii.,
297, 302, 311.
" AMISTAD," Case of the. iv.. 343.
AMMUNITION, expended in battle, iii., 490, note.
AMNESTY, in Virginia, iii., 53.
612
IXDEX TO THE FOUR VOLUMES.
AMSTERDAM, CITY OF, ii.,161.
ANABAPTISTS in New Netherland, ii., 239.
ANASTASIA ISLAND, massacre at, i., 209, 210 ; ii., 561.
ANASTASIUS. FATHER, ii., 519, 520, 5^3 ft seij.
ANAVA, DON GASPARDO, of Coahuila, ii., 599.
ANDERSON, ADAM, iii., 143, note.
ANDERSON, GEN. ROBERT, at Fort Sumter, iv., 442 ;
in Kentucky, 458.
ANDERSON, GEN. R. II.. summons Nashville, iv., 532 ;
at Chancellorsville, 549 ; iu overland campaign,
574 et seq.
A^DERSONVILLE, iv., 588.
ANDRE, JOHN, compared with Hale, iii., 511 : at sur
render of Charleston, iv., 13 ; his connection with
Arnold's treason, 16 et seq.
ANDREW, JOHN A., suggests raising colored troops,
iv., 544.
ANDROS. SIR EDMUND, Governor of N. Y., ii., 354;
of N. E., 387 et seq. ; in Connecticut, 391 ; deposed,
393 : report of, on N. Y., iii., 1, 3 ; Duke of York's
claim to Conn., 4; recalled, 5; Governor-general
of N. E., 8, 11 ; journey of, 11 ; prisoner iu Bos
ton, 12 ; Governor of Va., 63 ; recalled, 66 ; sus
pends charter of R. I., 119.
ANOELL, COL., at Springfield, iv., 15.
ANIAS, PETER, Governor of Darieu, i., 146.
ANN, FORT, iii., 573.
ANNAPOLIS, Md., ii., 217: battle near, 218; made
capital of Md., iii., 67.
ANNAPOLIS HARBOR, Nova Scotia, i., 314.
ANNAPOLIS ROYAL, iii., 125, 208.
ANNE, QUEEN, iii., 38.
ANNE ARUNDEL COUNTY, Md., ii., 217.
ANONTHICA. (See Onuonthio.)
ANTICOSTI, ISLAND OF, i., 182.
ANTIETAM, battle of, iv., 501 et seq.
ANTIGUA, ii., 211.
ANTILLA, mythical island of, i., 13, 35.
ANTI-MASONRY, iv., 303.
ANTI-SLAVERY ERA, THE, iv., 316 et seq.
APACHES, wars of, ii., 591, 596, 601 et seq.
APALACHEE INDIANS, wars, ii., 657 559; in Florida
Confederacy, 564.
APALACHEN, Indian village of, i., 153, 160.
APALACHICOLA, fort at, ii., 560.
APAULLA, .)., name of, on rock, ii., 585, note.
" APOLOGY," BARCLAY'S, iii., 6.
APPEAL, privilege of, iii., 57.
APPLEDORE ( Isles of Shoals), ii., 426.
APPOMATTOX COURT HOUSE, Lee surrenders at, iv.,
598.
AQUIXO, an Indian chief, i , 165.
ARABS, western explorations of, i., 65.
ARANDA, COUNT OF, ii., 597.
ARBUTHNOT, ADMIRAL, blockades Newport, iv., 63.
ARBUTIINOT, ALEX., trial and execution of, iv., 254.
ARCHDALE, JOHN, of Carolina, ii., 370 et seq.; Hi.,
82, 83.
ARCHER, GEN., at Frazier's Farm, iv., 485.
ARCHER'S CREEK, South Carolina, i., 194.
ARCHER, GABRIEL, at Jamestown, i., 269.
ARDESOIP, ('APT., his encounter with Major James,
iv., 13.
" AREN,'' Swedish vessel, ii., 155.
ARGALL, SIR SAMUEL, at Bermudas, i., 297 : at Vir
ginia, 303; voyage to Maine, 325; at Isles of
Shoals, ii., 425.
" ARGUS," THE, captured, iv., 206.
ARGYLE, FORT, built, iii., 147.
ARISTA, Mexican General, iv., 370.
ARIZONA, ii., 587 : name of, etc., 591 ; iv., 385.
ARKANSAS BILL, iv., 266.
ARKANSAS INDIANS, ii., 508, 514.
ARKANSAS RIVER, ii., 509, 521, 537.
ARLINGTON, Mass., iii., 385, note.
ARLINGTON, EARL OF, grant of Va., ii., 292 , iii., 53.
ARMADA, THE SPANISH, i., 253 ; ii., 555.
ARMAND, COL., at battle of Camdcn, iv., 35.
ARMISTK.AD, GEN. LEWIS A., at Malvern llill,iv., 487 ;
killed, 556.
ARMISTEAD, \V. H., commands in Florida, iv., 354.
ARMSTRONG, (!EN., at Charleston, iii., 467; at Ger
man town, 559.
ARMSTRONG, Governor of Nova Scotia, iii., 274. note.
ARMSTRONG, MAJOR, at battle of Caiiiden, iv., 35.
ARMSTRONG, JOHN, his authorship of the Newburgh
.Addresses, iv., 86: expedition down the St. Law
rence, 201 : plans invasion of Canada, 211.
ARMY, THE CONTINENTAL, iii., 419 ; effort to raise a
new, 543.
ARMY OFFICERS, treachery of, iv., 448, note.
ARNOLD, BENEDICT, in the Gorton controversy, ii.,
71, 72, 77 et seq.; Governor of R. l.,113; expe
dition to Ticonderoga, iii., 432, 434 et seq.; expe
dition through Me., 441 et seq. : wounded at Que
bec, 447 ; blockades Quebec, 448 ; pursues Tryon,
547; shoots a Tory, 548; reports to Schuyler,
575 ; at Bemus's Heights, 589 ; made a major-gen
eral, 590 ; his treason, iv., 16 et srr/. : invades Vir
ginia, 44 et seq.; New London expedition, 68; his
life attempted by Mrs.llinman, 70.
ARNOLD, WILLIAM, ii., 40, note ; the Gorton party,
72, note ; petition to Massachusetts, 99.
ARRIOLA, ANDRES DE, of Pensacola. ii., 558.
ARTAGNETTE, CAPT. DE, at Kaskaskia, ii., 547, 548.
ARTICLES OF CONFEDERATION adopted, iv., 52.
ARUNDEL, EARL OF, i., 315. (See Maltravers.)
ASHBURTON TREATY, iv., 365.
ASHE, JOHN, iii., 83, 86.
ASHE, COLONEL, iii., 465, 613.
ASHLEY, LORD. (See Shaftesbury.)
ASHLEY RIVER, S. C., ii., 282.
ASHURST, SIR HENRY, iii , 40.
" ASIA," man of war, fight with, iii., 458.
ASPINWALL, COLONEL, quoted, iii., IIS.
ASPINWALL, WILLIAM, ii., 44, ami note.
ASSEMBLY OF NEW YOKK. iii., 7, 23.
ASSUNPINK CREEK, iii., 530, 531.
ASSUNPINK INDIANS, ii., 493.
ASTICON, an Indian chief in Maine, i., 325.
ASTORIA, L. I., iii., 504.
ATCHISON, DAVID, on Kansas, iv., 410 ; leads border
ruffians, 413.
ATHEISTICAL BOOKS, iii., 49.
ATHENS, Village of, iv., 4.
ATHERTON COMPANY, THE, iii., 116.
ATHERTON GAG, iv., 33s.
ATHERTON, HUMPHREY, at Shawomet, ii., 79, note ;
iii., 113; killed, 117.
ATHERTON PURCHASE, THE, iii., 119.
ATIENZA, BLAZE DE, on the Pacific, i., 146.
ATKINSON, GEN., in Black Hawk War, iv., 295.
ATLVNTA, Ga., Sherman's campaign, ending in cap
ture of, iv., 580-583: buildings destroyed, 584.
ATLANTIS, mythical island of, i., 13.
ATLEE, COLONEL, iii., 499.
ATTUCKS, killed, iii., 363, note.
ATWATER, DR. DAVID, killed, iii., 548.
ATWOOD, JUDGE, leaves N. Y., iii., 38.
AUBERT, THOMAS, at Cape Breton, i., 175.
AUBERTEUIL, HlLLIARD V, iii., 411, 416.
AUGUSTA, Ga.. founded, iii., 156; siege of, iv., 38 ;
surrender. 60.
AUGUSTA, FORT, iii., 323.
AURY, COMMODORE, iv., 252.
AUSTIN, ANNE, in Boston, ii., 177, 178, 181.
AUSTIN, MOSES, iv., 361.
AUSTIN, STEPHEN, iv., 361.
AVALIDANIA, an Indian king, i., 53.
AVALON, in Newfoundland, i., 486.
AVERYSHOROUGH, battle of. iv., 599.
" AVON," THE, sunk, iv., 224.
AXACAN, Virginia, mission at, i., 221.
AYARALI.A, Florida, burned, ii., 559.
AYSCUE, SIR GEORGE, in the West Indies, ii., 211
"UACCALAOS. origin of the name, i., 137.
D BACKERUS, DOMINIE, ii., 134._
BACKUS, ELECTUS, killed, iv., 197.
BACON, LORD, letter to. i., 329 ; opinion on witchcraft,
ii.,452.
BACON, NATHANIEL, ii., 296, 298 et seq. ; death, 312.
BACON'S REBELLION, iii., 51.
BACON QUARTER BRANCH, Va., ii., 297.
BADAJO/., Council of, i., 151.
BAD AXE, battle of. iv., 295.
BAFFIN'S BAY, visited by Davis, i., 232.
BAGWELL, JOHN, ii., 31 1 .
BAHIA DE CAHAI.LOS (Bay of Horses), i., 154.
BAILEY, COLONEL, iii., 513.
INDEX TO THE FOUR VOLUMES.
613
BAILEY, COL. JOSEPH, his dam, iv., 568.
BAILEY, THEODORUS, commands the Lexington, iv.,
'613 : at New Orleans, 527.
BAINBIUDGE, WILLIAM, carries tribute to Algiers, iv.,
154 : cruise in the Constitution, 193.
BAIRD, GEN". ABSALOM, at Chattanooga, iv., 565.
BAKER, CAPTAIN, at Albany, ii., 345.
BAKER, E. I)., killed, iv., 454.
" BALANCE," THE, a Dutch ship, ii., 158.
BALBOA, VASCO NUNEZ DE, i., Li2, 144, 14ti.
BALCARRAS, EARL, iii., 568 ft SKJ., 574, note.
BALFOUR, LIEUT. -COL. , iv., his execution of Hayne,
62 : at Eutaw Springs, 63.
BALL'S BLUFF, battle of, iv.. 45_4.
BALTIMORE, LORD, in Virginia, i., 484, 485, 480, 487.
BALTIMORE, LORD (2o), in Maryland, i., 4S7, 4*9.
BALTIMORE, LORD (CECIL), ii., 211 <•/•.«•'/. : agreement
with Va. agents, 222 ; claim to Delaware region,
249 ft seq. : deposed, iii., tin.
BALTIMORE, LORDS, in Md., iii., 78. (See, also, Cal-
vert.)
BALTIMORE, CITY OF, iii., SO: iv., political mob in,
187 ; expedition against, 222 ; secession mob in,
447.
BAMBO HOECK. (See Bombay Hook )
BAXGOR, MAINE, called Kadesquit, i., 323.
BANK, a public, established, iii., 131 ; first national,
iv., 107.
BANK, r. S., Jackson's hostility to it, iv., 300.
BANKS, NT. P., elected Speaker, iv., 418; in Pope's
campaign, 402 ?t seq : ordered to Washington, 499 ;
at Port Hudson, 559 : lied River expedition, 567.
BARII \DOES, ii., 1.7 : loyalty of, 211.
BARBARY STATES, relations with, iv., 154.
BARKER, DR., sent to Puritans, ii., 218.
BARRIER, La Salle's settlement at, ii.. 519.
BAUROUR. JAMES, on dissolution of the Union, iv.,
27i.i, note.
BARCLAY, CAPT., defeated by Perry, iv , 198.
BARCLAY, DAVID, of East Jersey, iii., 6, 9.
BARCLAY, ROBERT, with Penn, ii., 486; Governor of
East Jersey, iii., 6, and note.
BAREFOOT, WALTER, of X. II., ii., 425; Deputy Gov
ernor, 431 : attack on, 432.
BARENTSEN, deputy at Fort Orange, i., 367.
BUIKNTZ, WILLEM, voyage of, i., 343.
BARGAS, DIEGO DE, ii.. 5S4, 585, note.
BARKER, JAMES, ii., 113, note.
BARKER, THOMAS, of East Jersey, iii., 6, note.
BARKING, witchcraft trials at, ii.. 452.
BARLOW, ARTHUR, voyage of, i., 241 ; cited, 242, note ;
explores in Virginia, 244.
BARLOW, GEN. FRANCIS <_!., at Cold Harbor, iv., 577.
BARNARD, Gen. .1. G., atMalvern Hill, iv.,486.
BARNEGAT INLET, N. .!., ii., 474.
BARNEY, JOSHUA, defends Washington, iv., 219.
BARNSTABLE, Mass., iii. ,478.
BARNWELL, COLONEL, iii., 93.
BAKU, CAPTAIN, explores the Mississippi, ii., 523.
BARRANCAS, FORT, blown up, iv., 233.
BARRAS, COUNT DE, joins De <.!ras-e, iv.. 71.
BAKRE, COLONEL, his reply to Townshend, iii., 344,
note: his portrait, 350.
BAKRENE, WILLIAM, Maryland, i., 503.
BARREN HILL, iii., 601.
BARRETT, COLONEL, iii., 389.
BARRINGTON, LORD, his speech, iii., 452.
HARRINGTON, K. 1., ii., 43.
BARRON, SAMUEL, commands in the Mediterranean,
iv., 160.
BARTON, JUSTICE, ii., 165.
BARTON. LIEUT. -COL. WILLIAM, captures General Pres-
cott, iii., 549, 550, note.
BARTROI'S GARDEN, Philadelphia, ii , 151.
BASHKBA, chief of the Wawenoeks, ii.,435.
BASKING RIDGE, X J., Lee at, iii., 524.
BASQUES, THE, theories of their origin, i., 10.
BASTIDAS, RODRIGO, voyage of, i., 123.
BASTROP, BARON, his lands, iv., 150.
BATON ROUGE, captured, iv., 7.
BATTERY, THE, X. Y , dismantled, iii., 458.
BAULSTON, WILLIAM, ii.. 44, note, 113. note.
BAUME, LIEUT. -COL., wounded, iii., 582.
BAXTER, COLONEL, killed in attack on Fort Washing
ton, iii., 518.
BAXTER, GEORGE, commissioner, ii., 137, 257; on
Long Island, 145 ; arrested, 150.
BAXTER, CAPT. THOMAS, ii., 143.
BAYAGOULA INDIANS, ii., 5l£.
BAYARD, JAMES A., iv., 144, 187 : as peace commis
sioner, 209.
BAYARD, MIDAM ANNA, ii., 242, 243.
BAYARD, NICHOLAS, of X. Y., iii., 12; flight to Al
bany, 16 : influence, 17 ; urges the execution of
Leisler, 23; at Hartford, 28 ; his trial, 38.
BAYLEY, REV. JAMES, at Salem, ii., 456.
BAYLOR, COLONEL, quoted, iii., 4u9, note.
BAY OF FUNDY, Baye Franchise of De Monts, i., 314.
BAZEMZALLES or BASCONZELOS, DON JOSEPH DE name
on rock, ii., 585.
BEACON, THE, in Boston, iii., 356.
BEAR BLUFF, Carolina, ii., 362.
BEATTY, CHARLES, on Welsh traditions, i., 70.
BEAUFORT, X. C., captured, iv., 463.
BEAUFORT, S. C., French colony near, i., 194.
liKAU.ii:u, CAPTAIN HE, in La Salle's Meet, ii., 517.
BEIUJEU, DE, attack on Braddock, iii. ,266, 267.'
llKU MAKrii.us, his service, iii , 545.
BKAUREGARD, GEN. G. P. T., at Surnter, iv., 445; at
Bull Hun, 451 ; at Pittsburg Landing, 522 ; appeal
to people of Georgia, 585; advises hoisting black
flag, 589 ; at Petersburg, 590.
BEAU SEJOUR, FORT, iii., i!76.
BEAUTIFUL RIVER, THE, iii., 255.
BEAVER DAM CHEEK, battle of, iv., 480.
BEAVER STREET (Xew York), ii., 266, 319, 339.
BECK, DIRECTOR, buys slaves at Curacoa, ii., 246.
BEDFORD, DUKE OF, iii., 272.
BEDFORD, L. I., iii., 498.
BEECHER, LYMAN, iv., 334.
BEEKMAN, HENRY, JR., iii., 232, note.
BEEKMAN, WILLIAM, at Xew Amstel, ii., 163, 248, 249
et seq. ; at Xew York, 267.
BEEKMAN MANSION, THE, iii.. 511.
BEERS, CAPTAIN, killed by Indians, ii., 411.
BKHUM, MARTIN, astronomer, i.,96, 103.
BEHTIIA, WILLIAM, iii., 143, note.
BELC-HF.R, JONATHAN, in Mass, and X. II., iii., 198,
201 : in London. 200 ; in N. J., 202.
BELFAST, MAINE, iii., 197, note.
BELGIUM, gravel drifts in, i., 2.
BELL, CAPT. II. II., at New Orleans, iv., 529.
BELL, JOHN, iv., 433.
BELLAMY, pirate, iii , 37.
BELLEVILLE, X. J., in Newark purchase, ii.. 323, note.
BELI.INGIIAM, KICHVRD, of Mass., rejects Quakers, ii.,
178; consulted by Endicott. 197.
BKLI.OMONT, E\RL OF, ii., 4-33 : iii.. 29 : Gov. of N. Y.,
Mass., and X. II., 31, 111 ; sympathy with Leisler,
32 : the Arlrenture galley, 33 ; favors popular party,
32: arrests Kidd, 35: correspondence, 37; his
death, 87; quarrel with II. I., 120.
BEMUS'S HEIGHTS, iii., 584. 589.
BENEDICT, GEO. W., iii., 435, note.
BE.NE/ET, early abolitionist, iii., 177.
BENFORD, ARTHUR, iii., 143, note.
BENNETT, JUSTICE, ii., 165 ; on " Quakers,'1 176.
BENNETT, RICHARD, of Va , ii., 212, 222.
BENNETT FARM-HOUSE, THE, iii., 5oo.
BENNINGTON, battle of, iii., 579-582.
BENNINGTON, Vt., township, iii., 431.
BENTLEY, WILLIAM, iii., 470, note.
BENTON, THOS. II., opposes U. 8. Bank, iv., 301 ; op
poses Texas treaty, 368 ; political position, 422.
BENTON VILLE. battle of, iv., 599.
BENT'S FORT, iv., 372.
BERGEN, X. J., ii., 472.
BERKELEY, ADMIRAL, iv., 176.
BERKELEY, LORD, of Carolina, ii., 269, 281 ; of New
Jersey, 321 et sey.
BERKELEY, SIR WILLIAM, of Va., ii., 201, 204 et seq :
surrenders Jamestown, 211 : resumes governorship,
223 : patentee of Carolina, 269. 274, 284 ; on condi
tion of Va., 290 et seq. ; on popular education, 292 ;
inefficiency of, 296 et seq. : appeals to Gloucester
men, 304 :. flees. 305: returns, 309; policy after
the rebellion, 316 : recall and death, 317, 3l8.
BERKELEY COUNTY, S. C. , ii., 358.
BERMUDA, ii., 211.
BERMUDA CITY, Virginia, built, i., 299.
614
INDEX TO THE FOUR VOLUMES.
BERMUDA HUNDREDS, Butler bottled up at, iv., 577.
BERMUDAS [Somers Islands], i., 292, 294, 297, 302.
BERNARD, Gov. of Mass., iii., 332, 337 ; quoted, 357.
BERNARD, KOBERT, of Nantueket, iii., 2, note.
BERNARD, THOMAS, of Nantucket, iii., 2, note.
BERNARD, THE KEV. THOMAS, iii., 379.
BERMCRE, MR., on fight at Concord, iii., 391.
BERRE, GENERAL, iii., 544.
BERRIEN, JOHN M., Attorney-general, iv., 298.
BERRY, GEN. HIRAM G., at Chancellorsville, iv., 547.
BERRY, ADMIRAL SIR JOHN, in Va.. ii., 316.
BERRY, CAPTAIN, in New Jersey, ii., 473.
BERWICK, Me., ii., 436 ; attacked, 439.
BETHEL, Conn., iii., 547.
BEVAN, B., wounded firing a salute, iii., 170.
BEVERLEY, of Va. Assembly, imprisoned, iii., 57.
BEVERSWYCK, village of, i., 448.
BIARD, PIERRE, missionary, i., 323. 326.
BIBLE SOCIETY, in relation to slavery, iv., 329.
BIDUEFORD, Maine, founded, i., 336.
BIDDLE, CAPT., captures the Penguin, iv., 225.
BIDDLE, NICHOLAS, iv., 3UO.
BIENCOURT, JEAN DE, i., 313, 327,
BIG BETHEL, battle of, iv., 450.
BIKKER, GERRIT, at Fort Casimir, ii., 155.
BILLERICA, address to General Gage, iii., 382
BILLING, CAPT.J killed, iv., 50.
BlLLINGSPORT, iii., 51)2.
BILLINGTON, JOHN, hanged at Plymouth, i., 428.
BILLOP, CHRISTOPHER, iii., 5.
BILLOP HOUSE, THE, iii., 512.
BILLS OF CREDIT, iu Mil., iii., 79 : in N. Y., 43 ; in S.
0., 81, 130 tt seq.
BII.OXI ISLAND, Iberville's post at, ii., 523.
BINCKES, JACOB, at Now York, ii., 347 et srq.
BINNENHOF, palace at the Hague, i., 459.
BIRD, COLONEL, attacks Pecks-kill, iii., 547.
BIRMINGHAM, N. J., iii., 528.
BIRMINGHAM, Penn., iii., 555.
BIRNEY, GEN. DAVID B., at Petersburg, iv., 591.
BIRNEY, JAMES G., his paper destroyed, iv.,330; can
didate for President, 368.
BISHOP, BRIDGET, a witch, ii., 461, 462.
BISHOPP, COL., iv., 198.
BISSKLS, New Ncthcrland patroon, i., 433.
BJARM HERJULFSON, \pyage of, i., 38.
BLACK, COLONEL, at New York, iii., 493.
BLACK, MR., mobbed, iv , 329.
BLACK BEARD, a pirate, iii., 97-99.
BLACKBURN'S FORD, fight at, iv., 452.
BLACK HAWK \VAR, iv., 295.
BLACK PEOPLE, iii., 37.
BLACK POINT, Me., ii., 441.
BLACK ROCK attacked, iv., 198 : sacked, 202.
BLACKSTOCK, skirmish at, iv., 39.
BLACKSTONE, WILLIAM, i., 423, 531. 532: his home on
the Seekonk River, ii., 406, 407.
BLACKWELL'S ISLAND, iii., 505.
BLADENSBURG, battle of, iv., 219.
BLAIR, FRANCIS P., iv., 422
BLAIR, THE REV. JAMES, founder of William and
Mary College, iii., 59, 66.
BLAKE, ADMIRAL, ii., 139.
BLAKE, JOSEPH, in Carolina, ii., 360, 372; death of,
559.
BLAKE, LIEUT. THOMAS, iii., 586.
BLAKELEY, ('APT., iv., 224.
BLAND and his fleet, capture of, iii., 52.
BLAND, MR., iii., 338.
BLAND, COL THKODORIC, iii. 554.
BLAND, GILES, in Va., ii., 307 ft seq. ; executed, 317.
BLASPHEMY, laws against, ii., 65.
BLEFKINS, DETIIMAR, on Greenland, i., 79.
BLE.NNERHASSETT, HARM AN, iv., 151.
BLOCK, ADRIAEN, cruise of, i., 359, 360.
BLOCKADE of American coa-t by the British, iv.,
205 ; of Southern const, 449.
BLOCK ISLAND, i., 178, 300 : Endicott at, ii., 2 ; a ren
dezvous, iii., 112, 115.
BLOCK ISLAND INDIANS (branch of the Pequots), mur
der Oldham. ii.. 1 ; punished, 4.
BLOMMAERT, SAMUEL, patroon, i., 431 et seq.
BLOODHOUNDS, used iu Semiuole war, iv., 353.
BLOODY BELT, THE, iii , 314.
BLOODY BROOK, Mass., massacre at, ii., 411.
BLOODY BRIDGE, battle of, iii., 320.
BLOODY STICK, THE, iii., 94.
BLOOMFIELD, N. J., in Newark purchase, ii., 323.
BLUE LIGHTS, iv., 208.
BLUE RIDGE MOUNTAINS, called Quirauk, i., 272.
BLUNT, GEN. JAMES G., in Arkansas, iv., 542.
BLUNT, TOM, Indian chief, iii., 93.
BLYTHE, CAPT., killed, iv., 206.
BOARD OF TRADE for the Colonies, iii.. 121.
BOBADILLA, FRANCIS, arrests Columbus, i., 120.
BODEGA BAY, Cal. [Drake's Bay], ii., 575.
BOERSTLER, CHARLES, iv., 198.
BOGAERDT, JOOST DE, at Christina, i., 469.
BOGARDUS, EVERARDUS, i., 442, 443 ; ii., 121.
BOLINGBROKE, LORD, iii., 47, note.
BOLLAN'S advices to Mass., iii., 335, note.
BOLZIUS, iii.. 15(i, 155.
BOMBAY HOOK, ii , 153, 161, and note.
BONAPARTE, JOSEPH, iv.. 134.
BONE CARVINGS found among savages, i., 3.
" BON HOMME RICHARD,- THE, iii.. 6iS ft s(q.
BONNEY, MRS., her Luzacy cited, 530, note.
BOONE, DANIEL, iii., 610.
BOONE, JOSEPH, sent to England, iii., 83.
BOONESBOROUGH, iii., 610.
BOONF.VII.LE. riiilit at, iv.. 455.
BOOTH, JOHN \V., iv., 599.
BOOTH. MAJOR L. F., iv., 588.
BORDER RUFFIANS, iv., 408.
BOSCAWEN, ADMIRAL, sent to the Banks of Newfound
land, iii., 262, 2S3 : expedition to Loui>burg, 296.
BOSOMWORTH, MARY, in Georgia, iii., 166 (I seq.
BOSOMWORTH, THOMAS, iii., 166 d sr-q.
BOSTON, England, Puritans at. i., 377.
BOSTON, Mass., first settlement of, i.,532; iii.. 11 :
revolution in, 12 : churches in 1740, 20*5 : riot in.
218 ft seq. : troops' r-rnt to, 355 et siq. : the " Mas
sacre." 359 : ch.-umvs in streets, 360, note. 4lS :
siege of, 394 et seq.; 414, 421 et seq. ; evacuated,
427.
BOSWEI.L, SIR WILLIAM, i., 441 ; at the Hague, ii.. 33
it sn/.
BoswYi'K. (See Bushwick.)
BOTIIWELL, WILLIAM, iii., 551.
BOTTOM'S BRIDGE, iv., 473.
BOTY, IYER, i., 346, note.
BOUGAINVILLE, iii., 307,311.
BOUNDARY, between N Y. and Conn., iii.. 10 ; and
Mass, and N. H., 138: between U. S. and Canada,
iv., 77,90, note : fixed by Ashburton treaty, 365.
BOUNTY-JUMPERS, iii., 531, note.
BOUQUET RIVER, Burgo\ne at, iii , 568.
BOUQUET, COL. HENRY, at Loyalhanna, iii., 300 : at
Fort Pitt, 324 ; defeats the Indians, 326.
BOURBEUSE RIVER, fossils found near, i , 16.
BOUT, JAN EVERTSKN, ii., 123, note ; in Holland, 132.
BOWDOIN, JAMES, iii., 523 ; iv., 98.
BOW-LEUS, BILLY, iv., 254.
BOWERY, N. Y., origin of the name, ii., 342.
BOWLING GREEN (New York), ii., 341.
BOWI.ING GREEN, Ky., iv., 515.
BOWMAN, MAJOR, iii., 612, note.
BOWNE, JOHN, sent to Holland, ii., 243.
Box, DANIEL, iii., 498.
'• BOXER," THE. captured, iv., 206.
BOYD, CAPT., his connection with Arnold's plot, iv.,
23.
BOYD, COL., defeated at Ninety-six, iii., 613.
BOYD, GEN., 19S; at ChrystlerX iv., 201.
BOYLE, ROBERT, on witchcraft, ii., 453.
BOYLSTON, DR. Z., introduces inoculation, iii. ,127.
RRADDOCK, GEN. EDWARD, iii., 262 tt sfq.
BRADFORD, CAPT., iii., 525.
BRADFORD, WILLIAM, statement of doctrines, i., 371 ;
at Leyden, 379; at Plymouth. 398, 403: patent
granted to, 427 : on Puritan morality, ii.. 64.
BRADFORD, WM., in Whiskey Insurrection, iv., 121.
BRADISH, a pirate, Hi., 37.
RRADI.KY, ATTORNEY-GENERAL, iii , 230, note.
BRADLEY, COLONEL, with Connecticut troops at Fort
Washington, iii.. 517.
IXDEX TO THE FOUR VOLUMES.
615
BRADSTREET, COLONEL, iii., 290 : at Fort Frontenac,
299 ; on the lake*, 326.
BRADSTREET, GOVERNOR, letter to, iii., 13.
BRADSTREET, SIMON, iu England, ii., 197, 380; in
Mass., 385.
BRAGG, BRAXTON, invades Kentucky, iv., 530 ; de
feated at Chattanooga, 565 ; superseded by John
ston, 579.
BRUGGE, brings royal letter to X. Y., iii., 18.
BRAINE, JAMES, of East Jersey, iii., 6, note.
BRANCH, GEN., iv., 472.
BRANDYWINE, battle of, iii., 553 et seq.
BRANFORD, Conn., settlers of, in N. J., ii., 323.
BRANT, JOSEPH, iii., 608; at battle of Newtown, 4 ;
his raid in the Mohawk Valley, 7.
BRASSUS, ANTHONY, martyred, iii., 148.
BRATTLE, THOMAS, on witchcraft trials, ii., 459.
BREBOZUF, FATHER, a Jesuit, ii., 50 >.
BRECKINRIDGE, JOHN C., elected Vice-president, iv.,
423 ; nominated for President, 433 ; at Murfrees-
borougli, 533, 537.
BREDA, TREATY OF, ii., 331 ; opinion of, 335.
BREED'S HILL, iii., 398.
BRENT, CAPTAIN, in Va., ii., 294, 311.
BRENT, GILES, in Md., i., 511.
BRENT, MARGARET, i., 514.
BRENT, MARY, i., 515, note.
liRENTON, WM., ii., 46, note, 43 ; in R. I., 102, 103.
BRENTON'S KORD, iii , 553.
BRKRETON, \\"M., obtains patent, i., 334. 529.
BREUCKELEN [Brooklyn], ii., 122.
BREVARD, DR. EPHRAIM, iii., 474.
BREWSTER, WM., at Scrooby, i , 374 et seq.; at Ley-
den, 379 ; at London, 383.
BREVMAN, COL., at Bennington, iii., 580, 590.
BRICK HofSE, the first in X. Y., iii., 14, note.
BRIDGEPORT, Al:i., iv., 525.
BRIDGE STREET (New York), ii., 34<i.
BRIDGES, JUSTICE, ii., 107.
BRIDGEWATER, Mass., attack on, ii., 415.
BRIDGEWATER, Canada, battle of, iv., 212.
BRIGHT, KEV. MR., i., 521, 522.
BRISTOL, England, its suburb of Cathay, i., 64 ; Ca
sails from, 129, 136.
BRISTOL, K. 1., bombarded, iii.. 417.
BRITISH, use of the word, iii., 336, note.
BRITISH ISLES, geologic period, i., 10.
BROCK, ISAAC, takes Detroit, 189 : killed, iv., 190.
BROCKHOLST, or BROCKIIOLLS, ANTHONY, iii., 6, 7.
BRODERICK, D. C., iv., 426.
BRODHEAD, DANIEL, commands Sullivan's left wing.
iv., 3.
BROKE, CAPT. VERB, wounded, iv., 207.
BKOMFIELD, MAJOR, captures Fort Griswold, iv., 69.
BRONX KIVER, iii., 513.
BROOK, LORD, Say brook named for, ii., 5 ; sends col
ony, 31.
BRUOKFIELD, Mass., ii., 406 ; attack on, 407, 408.
BROOKHAVEN (Long Island), ii., 3i.
BROOKLYN, iii., 461 et seq., 498.
" BROOKLYN," THE, to be sent to Sumter, iv.
" BROOKLYN," THE, to be sent to Sumter, iv., 444.
BROOKS, COLONEL, iii., 515 ; sent to Congress with a
memorial, iv., 86.
bol
BROWN, LIEUTENANT, iii. ,496, note.
BROWN, MR., candidate for speaker, iv., 390.
BROWN, JACOB, at Sackett's Harbor, iv., 196; cam
paign on the Niagara, 211 : wounded, 213.
BROWN, JOHN, mission to Canada, iii., 432, 438; at
Montreal, 440 ; at Ticonderoga, 588.
BROWN, JOHN, of Ossawatomie, in Kansas, iVj
at Harper's Ferry, 429 et seq.
BROWN, Gov. JOSEPH FJ?7fv., 582.
BROWNE, CAPT. MAURICE, wrecked, i., 238.
BROWNE, J. and S., at Salem, i., 522.
BROWNE, LIEUT. -COL., at Augusta, iv., 38.
BROWNE, SIR THOMAS, on witchcraft, ii., 452.
BROWNSTOWN, battle of, iv., 188.
BRUNSWICK, DUKE OF, his soldiers, iii., 454.
BRYANT, GRIDLEY, iv., 314.
BUCCANEERS, THE, in Carolina, ii., 361 et seq.
BUCHAN, EARL OF. (See Cardross.)
BUCHAN, SIXTH EARL OF, iii., 141, note.
BUCHANAN, JAMES, Secretary of State, iv., 373 ; on
the Sumner affair, 421 : election to the Presidency,
421-423.
BUCKNER, GEN. S. B., at Fort Donelson, iv., 517.
BUKLL, DON CARLOS, iu command of Department of
the Ohio, iv., 515; iu Shiloh campaign, 521 etseq.;
at Perryville, 531.
BUENA VISTA, battle of, iv., 374.
BUFORD, ABRAHAM, defeated at Waxhaw,iv., 30.
BUFORD, MAJOR, in Kansas, iv., 413.
BUFFALO, X. Y., sacked, iv., 202.
BUFFALO, iu Georgia, iii., 147, note.
BULL, CAPTAIN, at Saybrook, iii., 4.
BULL, HENRY, ii., 44, note.
BULL, MR., Governor of S. C., iii., 144, 145.
BULL RUN, First battle of, iv., 451 ; second, 496.
BUNDY, RICHARD, iii., 143, note.
HUNKER HILL, battle of, iii., 398 et sfq
BURDEN, ANNE, in Boston, ii., 183, 184.
BURDEN, MR., iii., 74.
'{URGESS, COL., succeeds Dudley, iii., 128, 131.
BURGHERS, division of at New Amsterdam, ii., 237.
BURGOYNE, GEN. JOUN, in Boston, iii., 396 ; Bunker
Hill, 400, 406; letter to Lee, 413 ; his pay, 422,
letter to Rochford, 455, note ; campaign in N. Y..
o67 etseq.: speech to Indians, 569 ; surrender, 592;
BURKE, EDMUND, iii., 346 ; on Stamp Act, 349 ; Bur-
goync's speech, 569, note.
BURLING, early abolitionist, iii., 177.
BURLINGAME, ANSON, challenged, iv., 420.
BURLINGTON, N. J., founded, ii., 477 ; skirmish at,
iii., 526.
BURN, COL., iv., 198.
BURNET, U'ILLIAM, of N. Y. iii., 47 ; his policy, 47 ;
transferred to Mass., 49, 200, 201 ; Governor of X.
II., 135; his invitation to Franklin, 244.
BURNS, ANTHONY, rendition of, iv., 400.
BURNSIDE, AMBROSE E., commands Koanoke expedi
tion, iv.,462; at Antietaui, 502: given command
of Army of the Potomac, 508 ; fights battle of
Frodericksburg, 508 : resigns, 510 ; sent to the
\Vest, 511: in East Tonn<>>s<>e, 563: in overland
campaign, 571 tt seq. ; Petersburg, 591 et seq.
BURR, AARON, at Quebec, iii., 446 : aid to Putnam,
495,506: elected Vice-president, iv., 144; duel
with Hamilton, 149 : his western scheme, 149 et
seq. ; trial, 153.
BURRAS, ANN, at Jamestown,!., 287.
BURRINOTON, GEORGE, of X. C., iii., 105.
BURROUGII, EDWARD, and the Quakers, ii., 196.
BURROUGHS, REV. GEORGE, ii., 462, 469, 470.
BURROWS, LIEUT., killed, iv.,206.
BURTON, JOHN, iii., 143, note.
BURTON, MARY, Xegro Plot, iii., 225 et seq.
BURWELL, LEWIS, of Va., iii., 78.
BURWELL, Miss, scandal about, iii., 70.
BUSH, LIEUT , killed at Savannah, iv., 10.
BUSHWICK, LONG ISLAND, ii., 245.
BUSHY RUN, battle of, iii., 324, 326.
BUTE, EARL OF, iii., 333, 345.
BUTLER, ANTHONY, iv., 362.
BUTLER, COLONEL, iii., 603, 615.
BUTLER, COL., his fight near Williamsburg, iv., 56.
BUTLER, GEN., at Guilford Court House, iv., 46.
BUTLER, GEN. BENJ. F., goes to Annapolis with
troops, iv., 447; on "contrabands," 450; com
mands Hatteras Expedition, 458 ; at Xew Orleans,
526 et seq. ; commands Army of the James, 571 et
seq. ; bottled up, 577.
BUTLER, COLONEL JOHN, iii., 609.
BUTLER, JOHN, at battle of Xewtown, iv., 4.
BUTLER, WALTER X., iii., 609 : at Xewtowu, iv., 4.
BUTLER, LIEUT.-COL. WILLIAM, iii., 584.
BUTLER, COLONEL ZEBULON, iii., 609.
BURNT CORN CREEK, fight at, iv., 203.
BUTTERFIELD, MAJOR, at the Cedars, iii., 449.
BUZZARD'S BAY, visited by Xorthmeii, i., 48; by
Cabot, 137 : by Gosnold, 265.
BYLLINGE, EDWARD, of X. J., ii., 474 et seq.
BYLLINGE, EDWARD, of East Jersey, iii., 6.
BYRAM RIVER, ii., 327 ; Conn, boundary, iii., 10.
pABECA DE VACA, i., 152, 156; ii., 578 ; iv.,
^ 170. note.
616
INDEX TO THE FOUR VOLUMES.
CABOT, GEORGE, iv., 227.
CABOT, JOHN, voyage of in, i., 129, 134, 136.
CABOT, SEBASTIAN, voyage of, i,, 129, 130, 132, 136;
pilot major, 138 : Gov. of Muscovy Co., 227, 345.
CABRAL, PEDRO ALVAREZ DE, i., 123.
CABRERA, at St. Augustine, ii., 558.
CABRILLO, JUAN RODRIGUEZ, ou the California coast,
ii., 569.
CADDO INDIANS, ii., 521.
CADILLAC, LA MOTHE, in Louisiana, ii., 525.
CADWALLADER, GEN. JOHN, iii., 518,526; at Prince
ton, 535 ; his house, 558 ; duel with Conway, 597.
CADWALLADER, GEN., in Mexico, iv., 378.
C.ESAR (Negro Plot), iii., 225 et seq.
CAHOKIA, Illinois, great mound at, i., 25, 27; iii.,
257 ; captured by Clark, 611.
CAJEANS, iii., 280.
CALAVERAS COUNTY, Cal., fossil skull found in, i., 17.
CALDWEI.L, N. J., in Newark purchase, ii., 323, note.
CALDWKLL, killed, iii., 363 note.
CALDWELL, C. H. B., iv., 527.
CALDWELL, REV. JAMES, services in New Jersey, iv.,
15.
CALEP, ROBERT, on witchcraft, ii., 459.
CALHOUN, JOHN C., leader of war party, iv., 184 : leads
tariff part}', 245 ; elected Vice-president, 281 : toast
on State rights, 308, note ; proposes annexation of
Texas, 363 ; made Secretary of State, 367 ; on
slavery in the Territories, 386 ; death, 394.
CAI.IFIA, queen of California, ii., 565
CALIFORNIA, visited by Drake, ii., 553: by Cortez,
554; name of, 565: explorations in, 586 et seq. ;
gold discovered, iv., 387 ; emigration, 388 ; sla
very prohibited, 389.
CALIXTO, JUAN, in Indian rebellion, ii., 597.
CALL, GENERAL, defeats Seminoles, iv., 353.
CALLENDER, COL., at Bunker Hill, iii., 402, 406.
CALLOWHILL, HANNAH, Peim's wife, iii., 171.
CALLOWHILL, THOMAS, iii., 179.
CALVERT, BENEDICT LEONARD, of Md., iii., 62, 78.
CALVERT, CHARLES, Lord Baltimore, iii., 61, 78.
CALVERT, CHARLES, the younger, iii., 78.
CALVERT, FREDERICK, death of, iii., 78.
CALVERT. LEONARD, governor of Md., i., 489, 490, 493,
504, 511 ; deposed, 512 ; recovers his governorship,
513 ; death of, 514.
CALVERT, PHILIP, secretary of Md., ii., 222 ; iii., 61.
CAMANCHE INDIANS, ii., 598.
CAMBRIDGE, England, witch trials at, ii., 452.
CAMBRIDGE, Mass., settled, i., 532.
CAMBRIDGE SYNOD, on heresy, ii., 40.
CAMDEN, battle of, iv., 35 ; evacuated, 58.
CAMDEN, LORD, iii., 348, 365, 452, note.
CAMERON, SIMON, iv., 468.
CAMPANIUS, JOHN, Pastor at Tinicum, i., 475.
CAMPBELL, CAPTAIN, at Moore's Creek, iii., 466.
CAMPBELL, COL., iv., at King's Mountain, 38 ; at
Guilford Court House, 46.
CAMPBELL, LIEUTENANT-COLONEL, iii., 612.
CAMPBELL, LORD NEII.L, of East Jersey, iii., 9.
CAMPBELL, MAJOR, at Detroit, iii., 317.
CAMPBELL, MRS., iii., 610.
CAMPOZ, AUGUSTINE DE, in Cal., ii., 595.
CANAAN, N. H., blacks denied education in, iv., 333.
CANADA, name of, i., 181, note ; expeditions to, 183,
187, 188; Indians and whites in, ii., 499; projects
for invasion of, iii., 43, 45, 251 ; conquest of, 304
et seq. ; cession of, 311 ; its value, 330 ; the rebel
lion of 1837, 355.
CANARY ISLANDS, aborigines of, i., 12.
CANNING, GEORGE, recalls Berkeley, iv., 177.
CANOE-FIGHT, Dale's, iv., 204.
CANOMCUS, ii., 9 ; grant to Roger Williams, 39 ; sells
H. I., 43; the Gorton party, 91 ; iii., 115.
CAMSO, ISLAND OP, captured, iii., 208.
CAPE ANN, named Tragabigzanda, and Anne, i., 417 ;
settled, 420.
CAPE BRETON restored to France, iii., 217 ; ceded to
Great Britain, 311.
CAPE BRETON ISLAND, visited by Thomas Aubert, i.,
175 ; included in Nova Scotia, 332.
CAPE CARTERET, S. C., ii., 281.
CAPE CHARLES, Virginia, named, i., 270.
CAPE COD, visited by the Northmen, i., 40 ; named
Wonderstrands, 47 ; probably visited by Cabot,
137 ; by Gosnold, 264, 314 ; named Cap Blanc and
Cape James, 264; and >Tew Holland, 348 ; the Pil
grims at, 387 ; present condition of, 390 ; claim of
Stuyvesant, ii., 126.
CAPE ELIZABETH, Me., ii., 374.
CAPE FEAR, S. C., N. E. men at, ii., 272 et seq.
CAPE FEAR RIVER, S. C., ii., 272 et seq.
CAPE HENLOPEN, named, i., 363 ; of Stuyvesant, ii.,
126 ; boundary of Pa. settlement, 495."
CAPE HENRY, Virginia, named, i., 270.
CAPE MAY, New Jersey, named, i., 360.
CAPE MENDOCINO, named, ii., 569.
CAPE NEDDOCK, ii., 440.
CAPE ROMAIN, S. C., ii., 281.
CAPE ROUGE, iii., 308.
CAPELLEN, BARON VAN DER, iii., 452, 598, 599, note.
CARAMALLI, JUSSUF, iv., 160.
CARDER, RICHARD, ii., 44, note ; 75, note.
CARDROSS, LORD, at Port Royal, S. C., ii., 360 ; goes
to S. C., iii., 141.
CARIBBEAN SEA, explored, i., 142.
CARILLON, iii., 297.
CARLETON, SIR DUDLEY, at the Hague, i., 364.
CARLETON, GEN. SIR GUY, campaign of, iii., 438, 445;
enmity of Germain, 566; resigns, 567: supersedes
Clinton, iv., 83.
CARLISLE, George Fox at, ii., 173, 176.
" CAROLINA," THE, at New Orleans, iv., 234.
CAROLINA, grant of, ii., 268, 1169; settlements in,
271,272 et seq.; "Fundamental Constitutions''
of, 276 el Sfq. ; war with Spaniards, 559 it stq.
CAROLINAS, THE, purchased by the Crown and sep
arated, iii., 105.
CAROLINA, NORTH, ii. , 271 et se</.; government in,
274,276; legislation, 280; insurrection, 280.
" CAROLINE," THE, destruction of, iv., 355.
CARPENTER, GEORGE, iii., 143, note.
CARPENTER, WILLIAM, ii., 40, note; petitions of, 72,
note.
CARR, royal commissioner, iii., 119,363.
CARR, ANN, ii., 456.
CARR, MARY, ii., 456.
CARR, SIR ROBERT, in New England, ii., 260.
CARROLL, Archbishop of Baltimore, iii., 449.
CARROLL, CHARLES, iii., 80.
CARROLL, DANIEL, in constitutional convention, iv.,
101.
CARTERET, LADY, Jersey town named for, ii., 321 ;
complains of Andros, iii., 5.
CARTERET, LORD, N. C. set apart to him, iii., 105.
CARTERET, SIR GEORGE, grants of New Jersey, ii.,
321, 474 et seq.
CARTERET, JAMES, insurrection in N. .)., ii., 473.
CARTERET, PHILIP, in N. C., ii., 284 ; in N. J., 321.
CARTHAGE, fight at, iv., 455.
CARTHAGENA, expedition against, iii., 76.
CARTIKR, JACQUES, first voyage of, i., 181, 183, 185,
186 ; third voyage, 188.
CARTWRIGIIT, SIR GEORGE, ii., 260.
CARVER, CAPT., in Bland's expedition, ii., 307, 308.
CARVER, JOHN, at Leyden, i., 379 ; in England, 381 ;
Governor at Plymouth, 398 ; death of, 398.
GARY, LIEUT.-COL. RICHARD, iii., 495.
CARY, THOMAS, of N. C., iii., 87; Hyde, 89; inciting
Indians, 91.
CASCO, Me., ii., 442 ; destroyed, 447.
CASEY, GEN. SILAS, at Seven Pines, iv., 476.
CASS, COL., at Pea Ridge, iv., 542.
CASS, LEWIS, candidate for President, iv., 386.
CASTEI.LO, of Xarvae/'s expedition, i., 156.
CASTIN, Governor of Nova Scotia, iii., 46.
CASTIN, BARON VINCENT DE, in Acadia, ii., 389,390;
advises the Indians, 442, 444 ; at Fort William
Henry, 441).
CASTINE, Me., captured, iv , 216.
CASTLE ISLAND, near Albany, i., 359, 363.
CASTLE PINCKNEY, iv., 444.
CASTLE WILLIAM, iii., 356, 426.
CASTLEMAINE, LADY, ii., 292.
CASTLETON, Vt., iii.: 4*5, 573.
CASWELL, commands militia in the Southern cam
paign, iv., 34.
CASWELL, COL. RICHARD, iii., 465.
CATCHMAID, EDWARD, N. ('., ii , 271
CATHAY, part of Bristol, i , 64 ; Mar.co Polo in, 92.
INDEX TO THE FOUR VOLUMES.
617
CATHERINE OP RUSSIA, iii., 452.
CATLETT'S STATION, raid at, iv., 495.
CATLIN, GEORGE, on Mandans, i., 73, note, 74.
CAUGHNAWAG/IS, THE, iii., 438.
CAVE-DWELLERS in Europe, relics of, i., 2.
CAVELIER, brother of La Salle, ii., 619 et seq.
CAVENDISH, SIR THOMAS, a leader iu the Raleigh-
Grenville Colony, i , 246.
"CAYUGA," THE, at New Orleans, iv., 527, 528.
CECIL, SIR ROBERT, Raleigh's letter to, i., 259, 262.
CEDAR CREEK, battle of, iv., 595.
CEDAR ISLAND (Isles of Shoals), ii., 426.
CEDAR MOUNTAIN, battle of, iv., 494.
CEDAR POSTS, iii.. 115.
CEDARS, THE, captured, iii., 449
CELORON, his expedition to the Ohio, iii., 255.
CKNTREVILLE, iv., 452 ; Pope falls back to, 49".
" CENTURION," THE, iii., 3o6.
CERMENON, SEBASTIAN RODRIGUEZ, ii., 586.
UERRO GORDO, battle of, iv., 377.
CHAD'S FORD, iii., 553.
CHAESIHOOMA INDIANS, ii., 564.
CHAGWAMEGAN, on Lake Superior, ii., 501.
CIIALONG, HENRY, voyage of, i.,'268, 317.
CHAMBERLAIN, JOHN,' iii., 1'Jtj, note.
CHAMBERLAIN, RICHARD, his account of the " stone-
throwini!; " at Great Island, ii., 467.
CHAMBERS, lawyer, iii., 230, note.
CHAMKLV, Four, captured, iii., 440.
CHAMPE, JOHN, attempt to capture Arnold, iv., 29.
CHAMPERNOON, ARTHUR, petition of, ii., 419.
CHAMPERNOON, C.\PT. FRANCIS, in N . H., ii., 419;
commissioner to the Indians, 441.
CHAMPERNOON, RICHARD, ii., 419.
CHAMPLAIN, LAKE, Schuyler on, iii., 439.
CHAMPLAIN, SAMUEL DE, voyages of, i., 312, 313 ;
founds Quebec, 321 : discovers Lake Champlain,
321; death of, 321; ii., 500.
CHANCELLOR RICHAKD, pilot, i., 227 ; establishes trade
with Russia, 229.
CHANCELLOR'S POINT, Maryland, i.. 496.
CHANCELLORSVILLE, battle of, iv., 546 et seq.
CHANCERY, COURT OP, in N. Y., iii., 48 ; in Va., 57.
CHANDLER, GENERAL, at Stony Creek, iv., 197.
CHANTILLY, affair at, iv., 498.
CHAPULTEPEC, iv., 382.
CHARLES V., EMPEROR, sends expedition to America,
i., 151 : his dominions, 339, 340, 341.
CHARLES I., appeal to from Ya., ii., 202.
CHARLES ]!., grants charter to 11. I., ii., 112 : on the
Quakers, 195, 196 ; address to from Virginia, 224 ;
grants of Carolina, 268, 269 ; on New Netherland,
331 : blesses the Friends, 47(3: grant of Pa., 487 ;
talk with Peiin, 487, 488 ; death of, iii., 8, 62.
CHARLES III., of Spain, the Jesuits and, ii., 597.
CHARLES CITY COURT HOUSE, battle of, iv., 480, note.
CHARLES EDWARD, the Pretender, iii., 218.
CHARLES, FORT, built by Ribault, i., 194.
CHARLESTON, S. C., founded, ii., 356 ; riot in, iii.,
82; attacked by French, 85 : defences, of 467 ; the
British attack, 468 ; siege of by the British, iv.,
12: evacuated by the British, 83: vigilance com
mittee in, 32'J ; mails rifled, 338 ; Democratic Con
vention in, 432.
CHARLESTOWN, Mass., settled, i., 531 ; iii., 396.
CHARLESTOWN, R. I., iii., 114.
CHARLESTOWN [OLD], S. C., settled, ii., 282.
CHARLEVOIX, PIERRE FRANCOIS XAVIER DE, in Canada,
ii., 537 et seq.
CHARPENTIER, in Mississippi Valley, ii., 521.
CHAIITERS. Of R. I., 11., 99 et seq.; 112 et seq. ; of
Mass., 373 et seq. ; of Conn., 390 et seq. ; a supple
mentary for Mass., iii.. 135.
CHARTER OAK, THE, ii., 392.
CHASE, commissioner to Canada, iii., 449.
CHASE, SALMON P., offers resignation as Secretary of
the Treasury, iv.,512.
CHASE, SAMUEL, iii. ,484.
CHATHAM, on Indians as soldiers, iii., 569; George
Ill.'s hatred of, 599. (See Pitt.)
CHATTANOOGA, occupied by Rosecrans, iv., 561 ; battle
of, 565.
CHATTERTON'S HIIL, iii., 513 ; attack on, 515.
CHAUMONOT, FATHER, a Jesuit, ii., 234, 500.
CHAUNCEY, ISAAC, iv., in command on the lakes, 195 ;
inactivity on Lake Ontario, 212.
CHAUVIN, DE, voyages of to Canada, i., 312.
CHAZY, SIEUR DE, murder of, ii., 332, 333.
CHEBUCTO HARBOR, iii., 271.
CHEESEMAN, CAPTAIN, killed, iii., 446.
CHELMSFORD, witch trials at, ii., 452.
CHENEY, THOMAS, at Brandywine, iii., 554.
CHEROKEE CHIEFS in England, iii., 106.
CHEROKEES, Glen's treaty with, iii., 295; Georgia's
contest with, iv., 289.
CHERRY VALLEY, iii., 243 ; massacre of, 609.
" CHERUB," THE, fights the Essex, iv., 223.
" CHESAPEAKE." THE, affair of, iv., 176; defeated by
the Shannon, 206.
CHESAPEAKE BAY, visited by Gomez, i., 220 ; Barthol
omew Gilbert, 260 ; Jamestown colonists, 270.
CHESTER, Pa., Friends at, ii., 488 ; Penn at, 490.
CHESTER, COLONEL, iii., 501, 524, note.
CHESTER RESOLUTION, THE, iii., 473.
CHESTERFIELD, LORD, iii., 207; quoted, 348.
CHESTERTON, Warwickshire, stone mill at, i., 60.
CHESTNUT HILL, action at, iii., 564.
CHEW HOUSE, THE, iii., 559-562.
CHICAGO, site of, ii., 513 ; battle of, iv., 188.
CHICAGO RIVER (Divine River), ii., 513.
CHICHELEY, SIR HENRY, ii., 208; in Virginia, 293;
iii., 53, 55.
CHICKAIIOMINY RIVER, i., 280 ; campaign on, iv., 472.
CHICKAMAUGA, battle of, iv., 561.
CHICKASAW INDIANS, ii., 513, 547 et seq.
CHICORA, Spanish search for, i., 149.
CHIEGNECTO, N. S.. iii.. 27»>.
CHIHUAHUA, province of, ii., 578.
CHILTON, MARY, on Plymouth Rock, i., 397.
CHINESE claim to discovery, i., 85.
CHIPPEWA, battle of, iv., 211.
CHISSICK, THOMAS, iii., 118, note.
CHITTENDEN, intentions regarding Vermont, iv., 82.
CHITTF.NDEN, L. E., iii., 435, note.
CHOCTAW INDIANS, ii., 542 et see/., 550 et seq.
CHOISE, GEN., invests Gloucester, iv., 73.
CHOISEUL, iii., 553.
CHOPART, ii , 540 et s(q. ; death of, 544.
CHOPTANK RIVER, ii., 214.
CHOWAN RIVER, colony on, ii., 272, 274, 276,
CHRISTAENSEN, HENHRICK, Fort Nassau, i., 359, 361.
CHRISTIE, ENSIGN, at Prcsqu'-Isle, iii., 322.
CHRIS TINAHAM, near Fort Christina, ii., 160.
CHRISTINA KILL, ii., 153, 159, 161.
CHRISTISON, \VENLOCK, tried at Boston, ii., 195.
CHRYSTLER'S FIELD, battle of, iv., 202.
CHUBBS, CAPTAIN, at Fort \Villiam Henry, ii., 449.
CHURCH, first west of the Hudson, iii., 243.
CHURCH, THE, its relation to slavery, iv., 347.
CHUKCH, CAPTAIN BENJAMIN, ii., 413, 417, 418.
CHURCH, DR. BENJAMIN, iii. ,419.
CHURCH, COLONEL, in Me., iii., 124.
CHURCH OF ENGLAND, established in Md., iii., 66 ; in
S. C., 82, 83, 104.
CHURUBUSCO, battle of, iv., 371'.
CIBOLA, Indian town on the Pacific, i., 192 ; a sup
posed city, ii., 567, 578 et stq.
CILLEY, COL., at Bemus's Heights, iii., 584.
CINALOA, a Spanish station in Gal., ii., 583.
CINCINNATI, founding of, iv , 112.
CINQUE, iv., 343.
CIPANGO, ancient name of Japan, i , 96.
CI.AIKORNE, Gov., garrisons Fort Minims, iv., 203.
CLAIBORNE, GEN. F. L , at Econochaca, iv., 204.
CLARENDON, LORD, a patentee of Carolina, ii., 269.
CLARK, of the Mayflower, i., 392, 393, note.
CLARK, COL. GEORGE ROGERS, in Illinois, iii., 611 ;
letter of cited, 612, note.
CLARK, JEREMY, ii., 46, note.
CLARK, REV. JOHN, driven from Boston, ii., 42 : at
Newport, 46 : petition of, 102 ; visits Witter, 106 ;
arrest, 106; trial, 108 et seq.; agent of R. I. in
England, ill et seq. : petitions for charter, 113.
CLARK, MARY, goes to Boston, ii., 185.
CLARKE, GEORGE, of N. Y., iii., 215, 224 ; suggests
stamp duties, 333 ; (Negro Plot), 236 : quoted, 245.
CLARKE, JOHN, asks for charter, iii., 112.
CLARKE, JOSEPH, ii., 113, note.
CLARKE, COL., attacks Augusta, iv., 38.
CLARK'S ISLAND, visited by colonists, i., 392
CLARKSON, THOMAS, quoted, iii., 176.
CLAUDIAN, quoted, iii , 8, note.
618
INDEX TO THE FOUR VOLUMES.
CLAY, CASSIUS M., iv., 422.
CLAY, GREEN, at Fort Meigs, iv., 194.
CLAY, HENRY, leader of war party, iv., 183 : as peace
commissioner, 209 : proposes to conquer Canada,
225; on Treat}' of Ghent, 241; on admission of
Maine, 267 ; candidate for President, 277 : Secre
tary of State, 281 : on the South American ques
tion, 285 et stq.; his tariff bill, 305, 309 ; candi
date for President, 368 ; proposes emancipation in
Kentucky, 391.
CLAY, HENRY, Jr., killed, iv., 376.
CLAYBORNE, SIR EDMUND, ii., 212, note.
CLAYBORNE, THOMAS, ii., 213.
CLAYBORNE, WILLIAM, secretary of Virginia, on Kent !
Island, i., 51)0, 5O2 ; his hostility to Maryland, 501,
502, 508, 511, 512,514; ii., 2\'2etsr(/.; in Mary
land, 214 et se</. ; secretary of \'a., 224.
CLAYPOOLE, JAMES, emigrant to Pa., ii., 495.
CLAYPOOLE, LORD JOHN, ii., 495.
CLEAVELAXD, GENERAL, iii., 402, note, 493.
CLERGY IN VIRGINIA, character of, iii., 69, 70, 75.
CLERGY, influence of, in New England, iv., 167.
CLERKE, SIR FRANCIS, iii., 590.
CLEVELAND, COL., at King's Mountain, iv., 38.
CLEVELAND, DUCHESS OF. (Sec Castlemaine.)
CLIFFORD, SIR THOMAS, ii., 353
CLIMATE, American, changes in, i., 50, note.
CLINCH, DAVID L., defeats the Seminoles, iv., 352.
CLINCH, DUNCAN L., in Florida, iv.. 249.
CLINTON, DE \\'ITT, constructs Erie Canal, iv., 275.
CLINTON, FORT, captured, iii., 588.
CLINTON, GEN. GEORGE, iii., 495, 588.
CLINTON, GEN. SIR HENRY, in Boston, iii., 396; at the
South, 464; at Charleston, 469: at N. Y., 493;
evacuates Phila., 602 ; on the Hudson, 615 ; be
sieges Charleston, Iv., 12 ; returns to New York,
15 ; tardy effort to save Cornwallis, 74 ; recalled, 83.
CLINTON, GEN. JAMES, iii.. 495, 588 ; commands Sul
livan's right wing, iv., 3.
CLINTON, GEORGE, Governor of N. Y., iii. ,242, 247,
248 ; Louisburg expedition, 251, 253, 333. _
CLINTON, GEO., voted for as Vice-president, iv., 128;
elected Vice-president, 149.
CLINTON, Gov., opposes the Constitution, iv., 103.
CLOYSE, SARAH, a witch, ii., 461.
COACOOCHEE, iv., 35i.
COBB, member of Congress, predicts war, iv., 265.
COBB, HOWELL, elected Speaker, iv., 390.
CoBiiKrr, \VM., iv., 129.
COBUKN, LIEUT. -COL., killed, iii., 586.
COCHRANE, ADMIRAL, in the expedition aga.nst Bal
timore, iv., 222.
COCHRANE, COL. JOHN, iv., 544, note.
COCKHURN, ADMIRAL, harasses the coast, iv., 205;
in expedition against Washington, 218 ; burns the
capital, 221.
COCKPIT, THE, iii. ,369, note.
COCOMARICOPAS INDIANS, ii., 594.
CODDINGTON, WILLIAM, petitions for patent, ii., 43;
Governor of II. I., 44; at Newport, 46; letter to
Winthrop, 48 : dispute with Gorton, 69,73; asks
alliance with Mass., Ii 5 ; Governor for life, 111 ;
petitions for charter, 113.
COFFEE, JOHN, at Tallusdiatch.es, iv.,203 ; at Horse
shoe Bend, 210.
COFFIN, JAMES, of Nantucket, iii., 2, note.
COFFIN, PETER, of Nantucket, iii., 2, note.
COFFIN, TRISTRAM, of Nantucket, iii., 2, note.
COFFIN, TRISTRAM, JR., of Nantucket, iii., 2, note.
COGGESHALL, JOHN, ii., 44, note : at Newport, 46,
note ; petitions for charter, 113, note.
COGSWELL, ROBKRT, expedition of, i., 470.
COLBERT, JEAN BAPTISTK, policy of, ii., 501.
COLD HARBOR, first battle of, iv., 481 : second, 577
COLDEN, CADWAI.LADER, of N. Y., iii., 247; Clinton's
adviser, 249 ; the Stamp Act, 344.
COLE, ROBERT, ii.,40, note; petitions Mass, against
Gorton, 72, note.
COLEMAN, THE REV. MR., iii , 128
COLEMAN, THOMAS, of Nantucket, iii., 2, note.
COLES, EDWARD, iv., 273
COLIGXY. ADMIRAL, colonies of. i., 190, 196.
COLLETON, JAMES, of S. C., ii ,364.
COLLETON COUNTY, S. C., ii., 358.
COLLIER. ADMIRAL, iii., 617.
COLLINS, son-iu-'.aw of Ann Hutchinsou, ii., 47.
COLLINS, trumpeter, at battle of Cowpens, iv., 43.
COLMAN, JOHN, killed by Indians, i., 351.
COLONIZATION SOCIETY, iv.»332.
COLORADO, Espejo in, ii., 580.
COLORADO RIVER, ii., 566.
COLO.UHOUN, the brothers, connection with Arnold,
iv.,22.
COLUMBIA, S. C , captured by Sherman, iv., 598.
COLUMBIA COLLEGE. (See King's College.)
COLUMBIA RIVER, ii., 586.
COLUMBUS, Ky., iv., 515 : evacuated, 519.
COLUMBUS, BARTHOLOMEW, in England, i.. 1(9.
COLUMBUS, CHRISTOPHER, his voyages, character, theo
ries, and fate, i., 98 et fey.
COLUMBUS, DON DIEGO, suit of, i,. 1:X
COLUMBUS, FERDINAND, i., 101 : interpretation of his
father's name, 102 : on Cortereal vinages, 14o.
COLVE, ANTHONY, Governor of New Netherland, ii.,
350 ; surrenders, 354.
COMBAHEE RIVER, S. C. (the Jordan), i., 149.
COMMERCIAL POLICY of Great Britain, iv., 92 : of the
States, 93.
COMMERCIAL CRISIS of 1857, iv., 425
COMMITTEE OF SAFETY, Mass., iii., 382, 397 : N. Y'., 455.
COMPO, Conn, iii., 548.
COMPROMISES, the Missouri, iv., 268 et gfrj. ; of 1850,
iv., 391 et set/.; the English, iv., 426: the Crit-
tendcn, iv., 438.
CONANT, COL., iii., 384.
CONANT, ROGER, at Cape Ann, i., 419 et seq .
CONCHOS INDIANS, ii., 578.
CONCHOS RIVER, ii., 578.
CONCILIATION, attempts at, iii., 599.
CONCORD. N. H.(Penacook), ii., 436.
CONCORD, Mass., battle of, iii., 883, 389, 391.
CONESTOGA, iii., 327.
CONEY ISLAND, Hudson at, i., 351.
CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA, organization of,
iv.,440.
CONFEDERATION of colonies, iii., 261.
" COXFIANCE," THE, at VtnttFbnrg;, iv., 215.
CONGRESS, the first Colonial, iii. ,10 : the Continental.
339, 340, 341 ; leaves Philadelphia, 522 ; decadence
of, iv , 95; assembles in New York, 104.
" CONGRESS," THE, destroyed, iv., 4li4.
CONNECTICUT, ii.,6, 22, 27." 30 : independent of Mass.,
22, 23, 24 ; joins the confederation, 4'.' ; iii., 4,9;
William ami .Mary proclaimed in, 15; charter, 27,
117; on declaration on independence, 4"i9: Con
stitution, 4^7.
CONNECTICUT FARMS, burned, iv., 15.
CONNECTICUT RIVER, colonies on,ii.,22; claimed by
the Dutch, 31 ; as a boundary by Stuyvesant. 124.
CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES, adoption of, iv.,
100 et seq.
CONSTITUTION, FORT, iii , 491.
"CONSTITUTION/" THE, fight with Giierrirre, iv., 192;
with Java, 193: captures Cyane and Levant, 225.
CONTINENTAL TROOPS, iii. ,494.
" CONTRABANDS/' so named by Butler, iv.,450.
CONTRECOZUR, at Fort Du Quesiie, iii., 260, 266.
CONTRERAS, battle of, iv., 378.
CONTY, FORT DE, iii., 11.
CONVENTIONS, NATIONAL, iv., 277.
CONWAY, GENERAL, on American affairs, iii., 347, 348 ;
his portrait, 350 ; withdraws from cabinet, 3i>5.
CONWAY ABBKY, in Wales, i., l>7.
CONWAY CABAL, THE, iii. ,596 tt se//.
CONWAY, GEN. EDWARD, iii., 544: at Brand} wine,
556 ; at Germantown, 559 ; major-general, 596 ;
duel, .7.17.
COODE, THE REV. JOHN, iii., 61, 63.
COOK, LIEUT. -COL., and Oglethorpe, iii., 165.
COOK, COL. THADDEUS, iii., 584, 586.
COOKE, of R. I., calls out minute-men, iii., 417.
COOKE, EI.ISHA, of Mass., iii., 130.
COOKE, GENERAL, iii., 41.
COOKE, GEORGE, sent to Shawomet, ii., 79, 84, 90.
COON, a Tory, shot by Arnold, iii.. 548.
COOPER, LIEUTENANT, killed, iii., 448.
COOPER, PETER, iv., 314.
COOPER, THOMAS, ot East Jersey, iii , 6, note.
COOSA INDIANS, ii., 564.
COPELAND, JOHN, at Boston, ii., 186, 187: opposes
Mass. Commissioners, 197.
COPLEY, SIR LIONEL, of Md., iii., 61, 63.
INDEX TO THE FOUR VOLUMES.
619
COPP'S HILL, Boston, iii., 398.
" COPPERHEAD '• PARTY, THE, iv., 511.
COPPIN, ROBERT, of the Maytinwer, 1., 892.
CORAM, THOMAS, Hi., 143, note.
CORDOVA, HERNANDEZ DE, in Yucatan, i., 148.
CORES INDIANS, treaty with, Hi., 92.
COREY, GILES, tried for witchcraft, i., 458, 459.
CORINTH, capture of, iv., 520 ; battle of, 534.
CORLAER, at Fort Amsterdam, i., 443.
CORLEAR'S HOOK, iii., 505.
CORN-BURY, LORD, iii., 38, 39 ; proposes union, 40 ;
wears female apparel, 41, note ; quarrel with N. J.,
42 ; with Quakers, 42 ; recalled, arrested, 43 ; de
clares the Delaware free, 181.
CORMIILL, Boston, iii., 359.
CORN ISLAND, iii., 611.
CORNWALL COUNTY, New York, iii., 10.
COKNWALLIS, COL. EDWARD, iii., 271.
CORNWALLIS, EARL, in N. C., iii., 464 ; at N. Y., 493 ;
ascends the Hudson, 519 : :it Princeton, 525 ; out-
generalled, 534 ; enters Phila., 558 : his attempt to
hold S. C., iv., 31 ; retreats to Wilmington, 48;
his. differences with Clinton, 56 ; fortifies York-
town, 71 ; his surrender, 74 : effect of, 75.
CORNWALLIS, THOMAS, of Mil., i., 489.
CORONADO, VASQUEZ DE, in Cal., ii., 537 et seq.
CORPUS CHRISTI, iv., 369.
CORSSEN, ARENDT, on the Schuvlkill, i., 440.
CORTELYOU HOUSE THE, iii.. 5<il.
CORTEREAL, (JASPER, voyage of, i., 140.
C'ORTERKAL, .lOHN VAZ (JOSTA, i., 140, note.
CORTEREAL, MIGUEL, i.. 141,
CORTEREAL, VASQUEANES, i., 142.
CORTEZ, HERNANDO, invades Mexico, i., 150 ; ii., 564.
CORYELL'S FERRY, iii., 602.
COSBY, COLONEL, of X. Y., iii., 50, 222, 223 ; proposes
stamp duties, 333.
COTTON, introduced in Va., iii., 64 ; exports of, iv.,
108 : reward for invention of a card, 108 ; duty
against, 245. v
COTTON-GIN, effect on demand for cotton, iv , 261.
COTTON, JOHN, of liostoii, i., 540, 542, 544, 651, 553 ;
Antinomian controversy, ii., 41 ; code of laws, 61 ;
Gorton prosecution, 85 ft seq.
COTTON, JOHN, at Charleston, S. C., ii., 372.
COUCH, (.JEN. DARIUS N., at Fair Oaks, iv., 476; at
Chaneellorsville, 5-16.
COULSON, CAPTAIN, at Falmouth, iii., 417.
COUNTERFEITING, iii., 133, note.
COUNTIES, twelve in X. Y., iii., 10.
" COL-RANT,'' THE XEW ENGLAND, iii., 136.
OOURCELLES, DANIEL DE REMI, 11., 332.
COURSEY, MR., sent to the Puritans, ii., 218.
COURTLAXDT and PHILLIPSE on Leisler, iii., 18.
COUSIN OF DIEPPE, alleged vovage of, i., 139.
COUWENHOVEN, JACOB WOLFERTSEN VAN, ii., 123,
note ; in Holland, 132.
COVINGTON, UEN., wounded, iv.,202.
COWKTA INDIANS, ii.,504.
Cow NECK, settlement at, ii., 31, 124.
COWPENS, battle of, iv., 41.
Cox, COL., iii., 577.
COXE, DANIEL, memorial of, ii., 512, 523.
CRADOCK, MATTHEW, Governor of Mass. Bay Co., i.,
518 ; letter of to Endicott, 530.
CRAMAHE. at Quebec, iii., 445.
CRAMP-ION'S GAP, iv., 500.
CRANBERRY, N. J., camp at, iii. ,525.
CRANCH, \\"M., cited, iv.,2iS, note.
CRANDAI.L, JOHN, visits Witter at Lynn, arrested, ii.,
106 ; fined, 103.
CRANDALL, REUBEN, punished, iv., 329.
CRANDALI., PRUDENCE, iv., 333.
CRANEY ISLAND, iv., 205, 465.
CRANFIELD, EDWARD, of X. II., ii., 429 ft seq.
CRAN.MER, ARCHBISHOP, on witchcraft, ii., 452.
CRANSTON, R. I.,ii., 69.
CRANSTON, SAMUEL, of R. I., iii., 120.
CRARY, LIEUTENANT-COLONEL, iii., 508.
CRAVEN COUNTY, S. C., ii.,358.
CRAVEN, EARL OF, a patentee of Carolina, ii , 269;
iii., 85; of S. C., 96.
CRAWFORD, \VM. H., candidate for President, iv., 276
et seq. ; encounter with Moaroe, 278, note.
CREEK INDIANS, ii., 5-K! : war with, iv., 202 ; treaty
with, 247 : trouble with Georgia, 288.
" CREOLE,'' case of the, iv., 344.
CRESAP, COLONEL, lays out road, iii., 258.
, , , ., .
CRESCENTIA, proposed name of Md.. i., 487.
CREVE-CIEUR, a post of La Salle's, ii., 511.
, , , .
CROGHAN, interpreter, iii., 265, 326.
, , . ., .
CROSS, S. II., his MS. notes cited, iii., 115.
CROSS KEYS, battle of, iv., 4i4.
CROWN POINT, iii., 251 ; expedition against, 283 ; A
herst occupies, 302.
., ; proposa o purcase, v., .
CUDWORTH, RALPH, on witchcraft, ii., 4.J2.
CUFFEE (Xegro Plot), iii., 225 et s,-q.
CULIACAN, ii., 567.
CULPEPPER, Va., iv., 507.
CULPEPPER. JOHN, in insurrection at Pasquotank, X.
C., ii., 285 ; commissioner to England, 287 ; trial
of, 288.
CULPEPPER, LORD, grant to, ii., 292; of Va., iii., 53
et seq.
"CUMBERLAND " THE, sunk, iv., 464.
CUMBERLAND, X. S., iii., 276.
CUMBERLAND Co., X. Y., Resolutions, iii., 474
, , ., .
CUMMING, SIR ALEXANDER, ii!., 106.
CUNAMES INDIANS, ii., 580.
CUNIGA, Governor of Florida, ii., 559.
CURACOA. slaves brought from, ii., 246.
CURLER, ARENDT VAN, buys the " Great Flat," ii.,
245, 332; death of, 343.
CURLES, estate of X Bacon, ii., 297.
CURRENCY in Va., iii., 55 ; in S. C., 107.
CURTIS, CAPTAIN EDWARD, a commissioner to reduce
Virginia, ii., 211.
CURTIS, GE.V. SAMUEL R., at Pea Ridge, iv., 542.
CURWEN, JUSTICE, witch trials of, ii., 458.
GUSHING, WM. B., destroys the Albemttrle, iv., 589.
CUSHMAN, ROBT., i , o7'.t : in England, 381.
CUSSETA INDIANS, H., 564.
CUTLER, MANASSEH, his claim to authorship of Or
dinance of 1787, iv., 110, note.
CUTSHAMAKE, a Dorchester sachem, ii., 78.
CUTTS, JOHN, ii., 219.
CUTTS, JOHN, President of X. H., ii., 427, 428.
CUTTS, URSULA, killed by Indians, ii., 448.
CUTTS'S ISLAND, X. H., ii., 419.
CUTTYHUNK ISLAND, (iosnold's colony at,i., 265.
CUYLER, LIEUT., at Detroit, iii., 318'
CUYLER, MAJOR, iii., 493,
CYNFRIG AB GRONOW, Welsh bard, i., 67.
OX, FATHER, a Jesuit missionary, ii., 234,
' 501.
DADE'S MASSACRE, iv., 352.
DAGGETT, THE REV. DR., iii., 615.
DAKANSEA, name for AKANSEA, ii., 509.
DAKOTA, skulls found in, i., 33.
DALE, COL., killed, iv., 235.
DALE, LIEUT. RICHARD, iii.. 621.
DALE, SAM, his canoe-fight, iv , 204.
DALE, SIR THOMAS, in Va., i.. 298.
DALLAS, A. J., Secretary of the Treasurv, iv., 244;
defends U S. Bank, 301.
DALTON, Ga., Bragg retreats to, iv., 565.
DALRYMPLE. COL., iii., 361.
DALZELL, CAPTAIN, at Detroit, iii., 319, 320.
DAM, JANSEN, i., 453 : ii., 123, note.
DAXA, JAMES D., i., 16, note.
620
IXDEX TO THE FOUR VOLUMES.
DANBURY, Conn., burned, Hi., 547.
DANE, NATHAN, writes Ordinance of 1787, iv., 110.
DANGERFIELD, the assassin, ill., 118, note.
DANFORTH, THOMAS, on witchcraft, ii., 459.
DANUL, CAPTAIN, a Carolina officer, ii., 559.
DANIEL, COL. ROBERT, of N. C., ill., So', 87.
DANVERS, Mass. (See Salem.)
D'ANViLLE, DUKE, death of, iii., 216.
DARE, VIRGINIA, first child born in Va., i., 252.
DARIEN, settlement of, iii., 148, 155.
DARLING, FORT, iv., 472.
DARTINGTON ISLAND. (See Uerrish's Island.)
DARTMOUTH, Mass., attacked, ii.. 406.
" DARTMOUTH,'' THE, tea-ship, iii., 370.
DARTMOUTH, LORD, iii.. 3*37, 412, 475.
DAUTRAY, with La Salic, ii. , 513, 515.
DAVENANT, SIR U'ILLIAM, his scheme for colonizing
Virginia, ii., 2 9, 210.
DAVENPORT, CAPTAIX, at Narragansett Fort, ii., 413.
DAVENPORT, REV. JOHN, at New Haven, ii., 27, 30,
note , his sermons, etc., 28, 29 ; leads colony from
Boston, 38 ; asked to go to England, 376.
DAVID, a prince of \Vales, i., 68.
DAVIDSON, GEN., at McGowau's Fort, iv., 45.
DAVIE, COL., at Wahab's, iv , 38.
DAVIE, MAJOR, at Ha-aging Rock, iv., 31.
DAVIE, SIR JOHN, ii , 427, note.
DAVIE, ({EX. \V. 11., iii., 475 ; sent to France, 134.
DAVIS, of Massachusetts, iv.. 396.
DAVIS, CAPTAIN, at Concord, iii., 389, 390.
DAVIS, COM. C. II., captures Memphis, iv., 520.
DAVIS, GEN. J. C., at Murfreesborough, iv., 537.
DAVIS, JEFFERSON, at Buena Vista, iv., 376 : approves
assault on Mr. Sunnier, 420 : e!ected President of
Confederacy, 440 ; night and capture, 599, 600.
DAVIS, JOHN, voyages of, i., 231.
DAVIS, NICHOLAS, in Boston, ii., 190.
DAVISON, U'ILLIAM, i. . :i7."i.
DAWES. U'ILLIAM, iii., 385.
DAYTON, ELIAS, service in New Jersey, iv., 15.
DAYTON, WM. L., candidate for Vice-president, iv.,
422; minister at Paris, 514.
DEANE, SILAS, iii., 433; in France, 545.
DEARBORN, FORT, iv., 188.
DEARIIORN, HENRY, at Quebec, iii., 448: at Bemus's
Heights, 585: appointed commander-in-chief, 187;
expedition against York, 195; at mouth of the
Niagar.-i. I'.lii': retires, 198.
DE AYLI.ON, Luc\s VASO.UEZ, expedition to Chicora,
i., 149, 150; traces of , 162.
DE BARRAS, sails from Newport, iv., 70.
DEBT, England's national, in 1763, iii., 330 ; the U.
S. public, iv., 94.
DE CASTRO, in California, iv., 373.
DECATUR, Ala., iv., 525.
" DECATUR,'' THE, captures the Dominica, iv., 206.
DECATUR, JAMES, killed, iv., 158.
DECATUR, STEPHEN, service in the Mediterranean, iv.,
157 et seq. ; cruise in the United Stales, 192 ;
chased into New London, 207; captured, 225 ; in
war with Algiers, 243.
DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE, iii., 470 et seq.
DECLARATION OF INDULGENCE, THE, recalled, ii., 353.
DECLARATORY ACT, THE, iii., 348, 351.
DECREES, Berlin and Milan, iv., 174.
DEDHAM, Mass., Indians at, ii., 404.
DEERFIELD, ii., 406 ; attacked, 410 ; Hi., 122.
DEFIANCE, FORT, Hi., 572 ; iv., 117.
DE FERMOY, GEN., iii., 529, 531, 573, note.
DE HAAS, GEN., Hi., 544.
DE HEISTER, at New York, Hi., 493.
DE KALB, BARON JOHN, travels in America, iii. ,453;
serves in, 553.
DELANCY, COL., in command of refugees, iv., 66.
DE LANCEY, JAMES, of N. Y., Hi., 223, 248 et seq.
DE LA NOYE, in first Congress, 20.
DELAPLACE, CAPTAIN, his capture, iii., 435.
DE LA ROCHE, colony of, i., 312.
DELAVALL, CAPTAIN, in N. Y., ii., 320.
DELAWARE, first European title in, i., 432, note ; Hi.,
178, 479, 487.
DELAWARE INDIANS, THE, Hi., 258.
DELAWARE, LORD, Gov. of N. Y. and N. J., Hi., 247.
DELAWARE RIVER explored, i., 16, 362 : provisions in
Hartford treaty.il., 137 ; Swedes on, 150 et seq.;
tonnage duty, Hi., 180.
DE LA WARRE, LORD, voyage, i., 292 ; death, 305.
DEL NORTE KIVER, ii., 58U tt sey.
DE MONTS, SIEUR PIERRE, expedition of, i., 313, 322.
DENNIS, CAPTAIN ROBERT, expedition to reduce Va.
to the Commonwealth, ii., 211.
DENNISON, COLONEL, iii., 609.
DENVER, J. \V., Governor of Kansas, iv., 414.
DENYS, JOHN, in Gulf of St. Lawrence, i., 175.
DE PEYSTER, ISAAC, iii., 232, note.
DEPOSIT, FORT, iv., 118, 203.
DERBY, England, Fox at, ii., 165.
DERBY, CAPT. JOHN, iii., 395.
DERMER, THOMAS, voyages of, i., 331.
DERNE, capture of, iv., 161.
DESCHAM VAULT, iii., 449.
DESERTERS from the British, Hi., 422.
DE SOTO, HERNANDO, returns to Spain, i., 156 : Gov
ernor of Florida, 158 ; in North America, 160 et
w/. .• route of, ii , 509^ 554.
D'EsTAiNG, COUNT, iii., 605, 606; goes to Boston,
606 ; before Savannah, iv., 9.
DESTOUCIIES, ADMIRAL, defeated, iv., 53.
D'ESTOURNELLE, VICE- ADMIRAL, ill., 216.
DETROIT, iii., 256; surrendered, 311, 313; attacked
by Pontiac, 316: surrender by Hull, iv., 189.
DEVENS, CHARLES, U. S. Marshal, iv., 400 ; at Ball's
Bluff, 464.
DEVENS, RICHARD. Hi., 384.
DE VRIES, DAVID PIETERSZEN. patroon, i., 433, 436;
quarrels with Van Twiller, 438, 439; friendship
for the Indians, 453, 454, 455 ; prophecy of con
cerning Kieft, ii., 120.
DEWEY, OHVILLE, iv , 398.
DE WITT, JAN, of Holland, II., 330.
DEWESBURV, WILLIAM, letter of, ii., 184.
DEXTER, GOODMAN, Endicott's assault on, i., 536.
DEXTER, GREGORY, ii., 113, note.
D'lIiNOYOSSA, GOVERNOR, at New Amstel, ii., 254 ;
sent to Holland, 267.
DICKINSON, Gov., his memorial, iv., 99 : in constitu
tional convention, 101.
DICKINSON, GEN. PHILEMON, Hi., 546, 603.
DIESKAU, expeditions of, iii., 283, 285.
DIGBY, EDWARD, iii., 143, note.
DIGUES, EDWARD, of Virginia, ii., 222.
DIGHTON ROCK, inscription on, i., 60.
DILLENBACK, CAPTAIN, at Oriskaiiy, Hi., 578.
DINCKI.AGEN, LUBBERTUS VAN, Sellout at Manhattan,
i., 444; Governor, 463: ol'Stuvvesant's council, ii.,
118, 136.
DIN ELY, William, ii., 55, note 4.
DINWIDDIE, ROBERT, of Va., iii., 78, 259, 295.
DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA, movement to abolish slavery
in, iv., 397.
DISUNION, early talk of, iv., 226.
DITSON, the case of, Hi., 381.
DIVINE RIVER. (See Chicago River.)
DIXON, 111., iv.,295.
DIXON, of Kentucky, iv., 405.
DIXON, COL., at battle of Camden, iv.. 36.
DIXON, JEREMIAH, of New Haven, ti., 30, note; com
missioner on Pennsylvania boundary, 496, note.
DOCK CREEK, near Philadelphia, ii., 492.
DOEGS, Welsh origin of, i., 70; attacked, ii., 294.
DOLORES, mission of, ii., 596, 599.
DOMINICA, THE, captured, iv., 206.
DONGAN, COL. THOMAS, of N. Y., Hi., 7 tt seq.
DONF.I.SON, FORT, captured, iv., 517.
DONELSON, ANDREW J., iv., 299 ; nominated for Vice-
president, 421.
DONNACONNA, Indian Lord of Saguenay, i., 132.
DONOP, COLONEL, of N. Y., iii., 493, 563.
DORANTES, of Narvae/'s expedition, i., 156.
DORANTES, STEPHEN, ii., 567.
DORCHF.STER, i., 532 : emigrants from, ii., 9, 25.
DORCHESTER COMPANY formed, i., 420.
DORCHESTER HEIGHTS, Hi., 3!i6, 425.
DORCHESTER, LORD, his proclamation, iv., 116.
DORCHESTER NECK. Hi., 424.
DORR WAR, THE, iv., 366.
DORREBY SKULL, THE, i., 33.
DOTY, KDWARD, at Plymouth, i., 393, note.
DOUDLEDAY, ABNER, at Sumter, iv., 446 ; at Gettys
burg, 556.
DOUGLAS, COLONEL, Hi., 505.
DOUGLAS, STEPHEN A., introduces the Nebraska bill,
IXDEX TO THE FOUR VOLUMES.
621
iv., 405 ; denounces Emigrant Aid Company. 419 ;
on the Simmer affair, 420 ; for President, 433.
DOUGH-FACES, iv., 27(>, 294.
DOVER, New Hampshire, settled, i., 333; settlers at,
ii., 423; attack on, 444: iii., 193.
DOVER, TREAT v OF, ii., 346.
DOWNIE, CAPT., defeated at Plattsburg, iv., 214.
DOWNING, SIR GEORGE, ii., 427, note.
DRAKE, COLONEL, ili., 461, 462.
DRAKE, SIR FRANCIS, in Florida, i., 222; succors
Raleigh's colony, 250 ; on Spanish iuvasion, 253 ;
visits California, it., 553, oi'n et seq. interview
with Indians, 572 et seq. ; discoveries, 575, 576.
DRED SCOTT, case of, iv.. 424 ; the decision, 347.
DRESSER, AMOS, punished, iv., 329.
DREW, CAPTAIN, iv., 355-
DRINKER, of Pennsylvania, ii., 492.
DKISIUS, DOMIME, ii., 237, 239.
DRUM, CAPTAIN, in Mexico, iv., 381.
DRUMMOND, GEN., at Niagara, iv., 202 : Fort Erie, 213.
DRUMMOND, JOHN, of East Jersey, tii., 6, note.
DRUMMOND, WILLIAM, of X. C., ii., 276; iu Bacon's
rebellion, 307, 311 ft seq. ; executed, 316.
DRUMMOND, MRS., wife of William, ii., 307.
DRUNKENNESS, a misdemeanor in Va., iii., 59.
DRYSDALE, HUGH, of Va., lit., 76.
DUANE, JAMES, iv., 129.
DUANE. WM. J., removed from Treasury, iv., 302.
DUBREUIL, MR., invents cotton-gin, ii.,551.
DUCHAMBOU, of Louisburg, iii., 214, 215.
DUCK ISLAND (Isles of Shoals), ii., 427.
DUDLEY, JOSEPH, iu England, ii., 387 ; at trial of
Leisler, iii., 22, 23 ; ally of Cornbury, 4l> ; ap
pointed C. J. of N. Y., Ill : Governor of Mass, and
N. II., 120, 121 ; at Casco, 123 ; removed, 12*5.
DUHAUT, the murderer of La Salie, ii., 519, 520, 521.
DUKE'S LAWS, the, ii., 327 et seq. ; rejected, 479.
DUMAS, in Braddock tight, iii., 267.
DUMMEK, WILLIAM, of Mass., iii., 130, 200.
DUNBAKTON, X. II., iii., 580.
DUNCAN, CAPTAIN, in Mexico, iv., 381.
DUNCAN, THOMAS, iii., 232, note.
DUNMORE, LORD, iii., 459.
DUNNING, JOHN, iii., 369, 378, note.
DUPERON, iv., 141.
DUPLESSIS, at the Chew House, iii., 561.
DUPONT, SAMUEL F., Port Royal Expedition, iv., 459.
Du QUESNE, FORT, iii.. 257, 260, 262 et seq.
DUQUESNEL, Governor of Cape Breton, iii., 208, 209.
DURANT, WILLIAM, of Md , ii., 218.
DURANT, GEORGE, on Albemarle Sound, ii., 271 ft seq.
DURKKE, CAPTAIN, iii., 546.
DUSTIN, HANNAH, iii., 110.
DUTCH, THE, rescue English prisoners, ii.,6; claim
the Conn. River, 31 : difficulties with the English,
32 et seri. ; character of their colonization, 32.
DUTCH EAST INDIA COMPANY, i., 343, 345.
DUTCH WEST INDIA COMPANY, i., 364.
Du TUET, GILBERT, missionary, i., 323, 326.
DUVIVIER, expedition of, ii., 208. 215.
DYCK, HENDRICK VAN, ii., 118, 136.
DYER, MARY, in Boston, ii., 183, 191 et seq.
DYRE, WILLIAM, of New York, il., 6.
DYRE, or DYER, WILLIAM, ii., 44, note, 113 note; na
val commander, 143.
"FAGLE, THE, captured, iv , 20K.
-^ EARLE, MRS. (Negro Plot), iii., 228.
EARLY, JUBAL A., at Bull Run, iv., 453 ; at Chancel-
lorsville, 548 ; raid near Washington, 593.
EARTHQUAKE, iii., 204.
EAST HAMPTON, ii., 34, 35.
EAST INDIA COMPANY, the Dutch ii., 330.
EAST INDIA COMPANY, THE, iii , 367.
EAST JERSEY. (See New Jersey.)
EAST KIVER, N. Y.,Ii., 339, 342. 343.
EASTCHURCH, THOMAS, of N. €., ii., 284 ; dies, 286.
EASTON, COL., iii., 433, 434.
EASTON, JOHN, ii , 4'i
EASTON, NICHOLAS, ii., 46, 113, note.
EASTON, PETER, ii., 46.
EASTPORT, Me., captured, iv.. 216.
EATON, GEN., at Guilford Court House, iv., 46.
EATON, JOHN H., his scandal, iv., 298 et seq.
EATON. THEOPHILUS, of New Haven, Ii., 27, 30; his
correspondence with Stuyvesant, 125 et seq.
EATON, WILLIAM, his connection with Hamet, iv.,
'160 ; witness in Burr trial, 162.
EDENEZER, Ga., iii., 150.
ECONOCHACA, sacked, iv., 204.
ECORCES RIVER, iii., 314.
ECUYER, CAPTAIN, at Fort Pitt, iii., 323.
EDEN, Governor of Marvland, ili., 482.
EDEN, CHARLES, of N. C., iii., 90.
F;DGE HILL, action at. iii., 564.
EDISTO KIVER, S. C.. ii., 362.
EDMUNDS, at Hartford, ii.. 25.
EDRISI, Arabian geographer, i , 66.
EDSON, OBED, on Brodhead's expedition, Iv., 7.
EDUCATION iu New York, iii.. 247.
EDWARD, PRINCE, of North Wales, i., 68.
EDWARD, FORT, iii., 272, 283.
EDWARDS, THE KEV. JONATHAN, iii., 204, 205.
EELKENS, JACOB, at Fort Nassau, i., 361, 367 ; on
English ship William, 437.
EFFINGHAM, LORD HOWARD, of Va., iii., 57, 58.
EIGHT MEN, board of in N. Y., ii., 118.
ELBERTSEN, ELBERT, ii., 134.
ELBRIDGE, GILES, at Monhegan Island, i.. 335.
ELIOT, JOHN, the " Apostle, '; i., 539; ii., 19, 378,
437 ; his meeting-house, iii., 394, note.
ELIZABETH ISLAND. (See Cuttyhunk.)
ELIZABETH ISLANDS, iii., 10.
ELIZABETH, QUEEN, and Raleigh, i., 235, 246.
ELIZABETH, New Jersey, ii., 321.
ELIZABETHPORT, N. J., ii., 321.
ELIZABETHTOWN, N. J., iii., 522 ; raid on, iv., 11.
ELKE RIVER, ii., 214.
ELLIS, Governor of Georgia, iii., 295.
ELLET, COL. CHAS., commands ranis, iv., 520.
ELLICOTT, sent to Natchez, iv., 139.
ELLIOT, CAPT., iv., 196.
ELLIOTT, Indian chief, iv., 194.
ELLSWORTH, Chief Justice, sent to France, iv., 134.
ELLSWORTH, OLIVER, voted for as Vice-president, iv.,
128.
ELM, THE WASHINGTON, iii., 410.
EI.MIRA. (See Newtown.)
" EL MORO," Inscription Rock, ii., 584.
EL PASO, Texas, ii., 584 et seq., 598.
ELSINGBORG, or ELFSBORG, ii., 152, 153.
ELWOOD, THOMAS, ii., 177. note.
EMANCIPATION PROCLAMATIONS, Fremont's, iv.. 456;
Hunter's, 466: Lincoln's preliminary, 504: final,
543.
EMBARGO, THE, iv., 123, 178, 180.
EMERSON, THE REV. MR., iii., 390.
ENCISCO, a Spanish captain, i., 143, 144.
ENDICOTT, JOHN, Governor,!., 422,520; letter of to
Bradford, 521 : a follower of Roger Williams, 542 :
mutilates the flag, 543 : expedition to Block Island,
ii., 2ft seq. ; flues Clark, 108 ; treatment of Qua
kers, 182 et wg.,192.
" ENDYMION," THE. defeated, iv., 225.
ENGLAND, war with declared [1812], iv., 184.
ENGLISH, THOMAS, at Plymouth, i., 393 ; death, 398.
ENGLISH COMPROMISE, THE. iv., 426.
ENGLISH ignorance of America, iii , 354.
ENGLISHTOWN, iii., 603.
ENLISTMENTS, difficulties with, iii., 543.
ENSENORE, an Indian chief in Va., i., 248.
" ENTERPRISE.'' THE, captures the Boxer, iv., 26.
" EPERVIER," THE, captured, iv., 224.
EPIGRAM, iv., 179. note.
ERIC THE RED, colonizes Greenland, i., 38.
ERICSSON. JOHN, iv., 464.
ERIE CANAL, iv., 275.
ERIE, FORT, besieged, iv., 213.
ERIE, Penn.,iii., 322.
ERSKINE, English minister to the U. S., iv., 181.
ERSKINE, GENERAL, iii., 493.
ESOPUS attacked, ii., 232, 235, 343.
ESPEJO, ANTONIO DE, ii., 578 et seq., 583.
" ESPLANDIAN," [California] , ii., 565.
" ESSEX,'' Porter's cruises in the, iv., 191 et seq.,
222 : captured, 223.
" ESSEX," gunboat at Fort Henry, iv., 516.
'• ESSEX, JUNIOR." THE, iv., 222 let seq.
ESTEVANICO, of Narvaez's expedition, i., 156.
ESTHER, Queen of the Narraeansetts, iii.. 115.
ETHERINGTON, CAPTAIN, iii., 322.
EUTAW SPRINGS, battle of, iv., 63.
622
INDEX TO THE FOUR VOLUMES.
EVANS, COL., iv., 452.
EVANS, JOHN, of Pa., iii.. 179 et seq.
EVERETT, EDWARD, on anti-slavery societies, iv., 328;
recommends that discussion of slavery be made
penal, 341 ; minister to England, 345 ; nominated
tor Vice-president, 433.
EVEIUIARD, .SIR RICHARD, of N. C., ill., 105.
EVERTSEN, CORNELIS, ii., 347 et seq.
EVERTSEN, JOHN, H., 134.
EWELL, GEN. II. S., in Virginia campaign, iv., 493
et seq. : in Gettysburg campaign, 561 ; in Over
land campaign, 572 et seq.
EWING, GEN., iii., 526.
EWING, MR., his financial plan, iv., 360.
EXETER, X. II., ii., 422; attacked, 447 ; insurrection
at, iv., 99.
EXPORTS, value of, iv., 163.
EYLES, FRANCIS, iii , 143, note.
EYRE, COL., wounded, iv., 69.
PAIRFAX COURT HOUSE, Va., military move
ments at, iv., 451, 452.
FAIRFIELD, Conn., war witli Pequots, ii., 15 ; with
Dutch, 147 ; destroyed, iii., 615.
FAIRHAVEN, Conn., burned, iii., 607.
FAIR OAKS, battle of, iv., 476.
FALL RIVER, Mass., iv., 245.
FALMOUTH, Indians at. ii., 441 ; attacked, iii , 416.
FANEUIL HALL, iii., 429.
FARRAGUP, ADMIRAL D. G., captures New Orleans,
iv.,526; passes Vicksburg, 530 ; at Port Hudson,
559 : wins battle of Mobile Bay, 589.
FARRAR'S ISLAND, Virginia, i., 299.
KARRETT, JAMES, agent of Lord Stirling, ii., 34, 134.
FATHERS OP NEW ENGLAND, THE, in Holland, i., 370,
379 : in England, 371.
FAWCETT, COL. WILLIAM, iii., 454.
FAYAL, Colonel Norwood at, ii., 207 ; fight in harbor
of, iv., 224
FAYETTEVII.LK, \. ('., iii.. 464.
FEBIGER, COL., at Stony Point, iii., 615, 616.
FEBIGER, COL. GEORGE L., iii.. 616, note.
FEDERAL PARTY, rise of, iv., 103.
FEDERALIST, THE, iv., 103.
FELL, HENRY, a Friends' minister, ii., 177.
FELL, MARGARET, wife of George Fox, ii., 177.
FELLOWS, GENERAL, iii., 495.
FENDALL, JOSIAS, Governor of Md., ii., 221; iii., 61.
FENN, HE.NJAMIN, of New Haven, ii., 322.
FENWICK, GEORGE, of Saybrook, ii., 31.
EENWICKE,' JOHN, New Jersey, ii., 474 et seq.
FERDINAND AND ISABELLA, i., 107 etseq.
FERDINANDO, SIMON, expedition of, i., 251.
FERGUSON, LIEUT.-COL., at Wahab's, iv., 37.
FERNALD, CAPT. JOHN, iii., 210.
FKRRYI.AND, COLONY OF, Lord Baltimore's, i., 486.
FII.LD, \VII.UAM, ii., 113, note.
FII.I.MORE, MILLARD, accession to the Presidency, iv.,
394 : nominated for President, 421.
FINANCIAL difficulties, iii., 130.
FIRE ISLAND INLET, Ii., 163.
FISH, MAJ. NICHOLAS, iii., 462 : quoted, 463.
FISHER, MARY, in Boston, ii., 177, 178 ; leaves, 181.
FISHER, FORT, captured, iv., 595.
FISHER'S HILL, battle of, iv., 594.
FISHERIES, privilege accorded, iv., 77.
FISHKILL, THE [BraiidywineJ, ii., 159.
FISHKILL, Putnam takes post at, iii., 588.
FITCH, of Conn., iii., 389.
FITCHTER, MR., at Mt. Wollaston, i. 423.
FITZI'ATRICK, MR., iv., 433.
FIVE FORKS, battle of, iv., 596.
FIVE NATIONS, THE, ii., 233 et seq; council of, iii.,
3, 5, 11 ; treaties, 25 ; chiefs in England, 44 ,
against Canada, 45 ; convey country to the English
King, 48 ; become Six Nations, 94.
FLAGS, AMERICAN, iii., 420, 421.
FLATBUSH, Long Island, ii., 343 ; the British occupy,
iii., 497.
FLATLANDS, the British occupy, iii., 497.
FLAX, in Virginia, iii., 59.
FLEET, HENRY, i., 494; with Clayborne, 501.
FLEMING, CAPTAIN, killed, iii., 535.
FLEMINGTON, N. .1., iii., 551.
FLETCHER. BENJAMIN, Governor, ii., 498 ; iii., 25.
FLEURY, LIEUTENANT-COLONEL, iii., 616.
FLOKKO, visits Iceland, i., 36.
FLORENCE, Ala., iv.,525.
FLORIDA, shell-heaps in, i., 14; discovery of, 147;
ii., 554, 557 et seq.; ceded to England, iii., 169 ;
secret act, authorizing its seizure, iv. 248; ceded
to the U. S., 259.
FLOWER, ENOCH, school-teacher, ii., 495.
FLOYD, JOHN, in Jackson's campaign, iv., 204.
FLOYD, JOHN B., his treachery, iv., 441 ; at Fort Donel-
son, 517.
FLUSHING, ii., 35, 145 ; Friends at, 239 et fstj. ; agi
tators at, 257.
FOLSOM, GENERAL, iii., 894.
FOLSON, LIEUTENANT, iii., 159.
FONSECA, BISHOP OF, i, 121.
FONTLEROY, sent to America, iii., 453, 553.
FOOT, SAMUEL A., iv., 305.
FOOTE, COMMODORE A. II., at Fort Henry, iv., 516 ;
at Island No. 10, 519.
FORCE BILL, THE, iv., 309.
FORBES, MR., iv., 430.
FORBES, GENERAL JOSEPH, iii., 300.
FORD, PHILIP, Penn's steward, iii.. 179
FORDHAM HEIGHTS, iii., 518.
FOREIGNERS IN CONGRESS, iv., 130.
FOREST, CAPTAIN, at Trenton, iii., 530.
FORESTS, the right to, iii., 128.
FORNEY, J. W., iv., 424, note.
FORREST, MRS., at Jamestown, i., 287.
FORREST, N. B., massacre at Fort Pillow, iv., 588.
FORRESTER, ANDREW, Lady Stirling's agent, ii., 124.
FORT AMSTERDAM, i., 367.
FORT AMSTERDAM (Fort James), ii., 265, 266.
FORT ASSUMPTION, near Memphis, ii., 549.
FORT BEVERSRLDE, ii., 151.
FORT CAROLINE, built, i., 198.
FORT CASIMIR, ii., 153 ; captured, 155, ]50, 158, 266.
FORT CHRISTINA, founded, i., 466, 467 ; ii., 152 ; cap
tured, 159, 160.
FORT FRONTENAC, ii., 516.
FORT GuTTENHL'RG. ii., 151.
FORT HOPE, i., 440 et set/ ; seized, ii., 143, 148.
FORT JAMES, (Fort Amsterdam), ii., 266, 343
FORT KiN(i GEORGE, Georgia, ii., 560.
FORT NASSAU, occupied bv the English,!., 441; by
the Dutch, 465 ; ii., 150, 153.
FORT ORANGE, site of Albany, i., 366 ; ii., 129. [See,
also, Albany.]
FORT SAINT Louis, Texas, ii., 518, 598.
FORT TRINITY [Trefalldigheit], ii., 156, 158.
FORT WAYNE, hid., iii., 314 ; iv., 114, 118.
FORT WILLIAM HENRY, at Pemuciuid, ii., 449.
FORTY FORT, iii., 609.
FOSSIL REMAINS in Europe, i., 2 ; in America, 15.
FOSTER, CAPTAIN, iii., 449.
FOSTER, JOHN G.. in Roanoke expedition, iv., 462.
FOTHERGILL, SAMUEL, on the Quakers, ii , 172.
FOUACE, REV. MR., controversy with Governor Nich
olson, iii., 70.
FOUCHET, iv., 132.
FOWLER, ROBERT, brings Friends, ii., 185.
FOWLTOWN, destroyed, iv., 249.
Fox, CHARLES JAMES, quoted as to battle of Guilford
Court House, iv., 48 : retires from office, 76.
Fox, CHRISTOPHER, ii., 166.
Fox GEORGE, ii., 165 et m//. ; in Mass., 197; in Hoi-
laud, 486 ; in Phila., 494.
Fox RIVER, ii., 501, 503.
FRANCE, alliance with, iii., 598 ; commercial rela
tions with, iv., 1(17 ; on the brink of war with the
U. S. 134 ; rebel cruisers built in, 514.
FRANCIS I., sends expedition, i., 175.
FRANCIS, Seminole chief, iv., 253.
FRANCIS, COLONEL, killed, iii., 574.
FRANKLAND, State of, iv., 97.
FRANKLIN, Peiin., iii., 259.
FRANKLIN, BENJAMIN, iii-, 137 ; goes to Phila., 138,
189; the 1'eiin. (jaziltn and Pour Richard's Al
manac, 190; Postmaster of l'enu.,190; Wliitelield's
preaching, 207; Governor Burnet of N. Y., 244 ;
plan for union, 261 : advice to Braddock, 264 ; be
fore Parliament, 347; Hutchinson's letters, 368 ;
the army, 419 ; commissioner to Canada, 449; on
independence, 471; on declaration, 483; peace
commissioner, 512 ; commissioner in Paris, iv., 76 ;
in constitutional convention, 100.
IXDEX TO THE FOUR VOLUMES.
623
FRANKLIN, JAMES, ill., 136; imprisoned, 137.
FRANKLIN, WILLIAM, of N. J., arrested, ill., 481.
FRANKLIN, GEN. \\'M. 15., on Chickahominy, iv., 479.
.FRASER, CAPTAIN, at Mt'imington, ill., 580.
FRASER, GENERAL, ill., 450, 568 et seq
FRASER, MRS., warned by Sauute, iii., 94.
FRAZIER'S FARM, battle of, iv. , 485.
FRBDERICA, (la., iii., 156 : battle at, 161.
FREDERICK, Md., iii., 80, 263.
FREDERICK of Prussia, on America, iii., 453, 546.
FREDEKICKSBURG, battle of, iv., 508.
FREE HLACKS, condition of, iv., 332.
FREEIIORNE, WILLIAM, ii., 44, note.
FREE DEMOCRACY, iv., 402.
FREEMAN, JORDAN, kills Maj. Montgomery, iv., 69.
FREEMAN'S FARM, battle of, iii., 585 et seq.
FREEMAN'S TAVERN, N. J., iii., 54(5
FREMONT, 0., iv., 194.
FREMONT, JOHN C., expedition to California, iv., 373 ;
nominated for President, 422 ; in Missouri, 456 et
seq. ; emancipation proclamation, 456; relieved,
492.
FRENCH, JOHN, at Newcastle, iii., 180, 181.
FRENCH, GEN., WM. 11., at Cold Harbor, iv., 482 ; at
Fredericksburg, 508 ; at Chancellorsville, 549.
FRENCH CHURCH in N. Y., iii., 48.
FRENCH CUEEK, in Penn., iii., 556.
FRENCH FORTIFICATIONS, iii., 255, 256.
FRENCHMAN'S HAY, Mount Desert, i., 323.
FRENCH MOUNTAIN, iii., 285.
FRENCHTOWN, battle of, iv., 193.
FRESH RIVER. (See Connecticut River.)
FREYDIS, i., 46 ; brave act of, 52 ; colony of, 55, 58.
FRIENDS, ii., 166 e.t seq. ; called " Quakers," 176 : in
N. ]•;.. 177 et seq: laws against, 179, 182, 187, 189 ;
sufferings of, 239 tt seq. ; in X. J., 475 et seq. ; in
Pa., 488 'et -s^q. ; ou slavery, iii., 176; Gov. Keith
and tlie, 187.
FIUES'S INSURRECTION, iv., 121.
KRISLAND, ISLAND OF, i., 78 ; seen by Frobisher, 231.
FROUISIIER, MARTIN, sails in searcli of a northwest
passage, i., 23'J.
" L<'ROLIU,:' captured by the Wasp, iv.,192.
FRONTKNAC, Louis, COUNT DE, ii., 398, 502; aids La
Salle, 510, 5P2 : iii., 16, 1,8, 19, 29.
FRONTENAC, FORT, iii. ,256, 293.
FROST, MAJOR, killed at Kittery, ii., 449.
FRY, COL. JOSHUA, iii., 258, 260.
FUGILL, THOMAS, of New Haven, ii., 30, note.
FUGITIVE SLAVES, in Florida, iv., 247: the question
of, 342 : the fugitive-slave billl 394 et seq.
FULLER, CAPTAIN, in Md., ii., 219, 222.
FULTON, ROBERT, his first steamboat, iv., 169.
FUNDAMENTAL CONSTITUTIONS, of Carolina, ii., 276 et
seq., 368.
FUSANG, Chinese name of America, i., 85.
p ADSDEX, COL. CHRISTOPHER, of South Caro-
' lina, iii., 366.
GADSDEN, FORT, iv., 253.
GAGE, GENERAL, iii., 344 ; sends troops to Boston,
' 356 ; Gov. of Mass., 376 ; his wife, 397 ; recalled, 411.
GAINES, EDMUND, P., on the Niagara, iv., 213; in
Florida, 248 ; expedition to Tampa, 352.
GAINES'S MILL, battle of, iv., 480, note.
GAI.LATIN, ALBERT, in Whiskey Insurrection, iv.,
118 ; as peace commissioner, 209 ; gives warning of
Ross's expedition, 218.
GALLUP, CAPTAIN, ii., 413.
GALLUP, JOHN, finds Old ham's vessel, i., 557.
GALLOWAY, JOSEPH, iii., 522, and note.
GALLOWAY, pioneer, iii., 610.
GALPHIN, FORT, reduction of, iv., 60.
GALVEZ, his expedition up the Mississippi, iv., 7.
GAMBLE, HAMILTON 11., iv., 456.
GAMELIN, ANTOINE, iv., 114.
GAMLASON, THORHALL, a Norse merchant, i., 46.
GANDERA, an explorer in Ari/ona, ii., 591.
GANSEVOORT, COLONEL, iii., 576, 579.
GARAY, FRANCIS, explores Gulf of Mexico, i., 149.
GARCON, tortured, iv., 249.
GARDAR SVAFARSON, visits Iceland, i., 36.
GARDAR-BOLM, Iceland so called, i., 36.
GARDENER, CAPTAIN, at Oriskany, iii., 578.
GARDINER, CAPTAIN, ii., 413.
GARDINER, SIR CHRISTOPHER, i., 539.
GARDINER, DAVID, ii., 24, note.
GARDINER, CAPTAIN LION, ii., 5, 6, 34, 93.
GARDINER'S ISLAND (Manchonack), ii., 34.
GARDNER, COLONEL, iii., 393.
GARDNER, JOHN L., iv., 442.
GARFIELD, GEN. JAMES A., at Chickamauga, iv., 561.
GARLAND, GEN., in Mexico, iv., 380.
" GARONNE," THE, of Western Co., ii., 533.
GARRICK quoted, iii , 207.
GARRISON, WM. LLOYD, iv., 316 et seq. • mobbed, 330,
GASCOIGNE, GEORGE, publishes Gilbert's Discourse, i
230.
GATES, HORATIO, with Braddock, iii., 267 ; Adjutant-
general, 407 ; sent to N. J.,521 ; supersedes Schuy-
ler, 584 ; Board of War, 596 ; takes command in
the South, iv., 34.
GATES, SIR THOMAS, Gov. of Virginia, i., 292, 299.
GAYOSO, iv., 139.
GAZETTE, THE BOSTON, established, iii., 136.
GAZZANA, LUKE DE, i., 140, note.
GEARY, JOHN W., Governor of Kansas, iv., 413.
GENESEO, iv., 4.
GENET, KDMUND CHARLES, iv., 123; issues commis
sions in the West, 138 ; founds Jacobin clubs, 140.
' GEN. ARMSTRONG,'' privateer, destroyed, iv., 224.
GENRE, mutinies against Laudonniere, i., 200.
GEORGE I., death of, iii., 135.
GEORGE 111., taxing the colonies, iii., 334 ; his
statue, 350, 487; his speeches, 3l]4, 451,454, 566.
GEORGE, CAPTAIN, of the Rose, ii., 393.
GEORGE, MRS. (Negro Plot), iii., 229.
GEORGE, FORT, iii.. 226, 245, 289; captured, iv. ,
196 ; abandoned, 202.
GEORGE, LAKE, iii., 284.
GEORGIA, Margravate of Azilia, iii., 140; chartered,
143; slavery in, 153; tenure of lands, 154; war
with Spaniards, 159 et serj.: condition, 166; sur
render of charter, 166 ; not in first Congress, 168 ;
adopts Constitution, 487 ; Indian troubles in, iv.,
287 ; in conflict witli the general government, 288 ;
Sherman's inarch through, 584 et seq.
GEORGETOWN, capture of, iv. , 60.
GERMAIN, LORD GEORGE, iii., 568, note : opiftion on
the war, iv., 56 ; goes out of office, 75.
GERMAN FLATS, devastated, iii., 609.
GERMANTOWN, battle of, iii., 558 et seq.
GERIUSH'S ISLAND, N. II., ii., 419.
GERRY, ELHHIDGE, iii., 413; in constitutional con
vention, iv., 100 ; commissioner to France, 132.
GETTYSBURG, battle of, iv., 552.
GHENT, TREATY OF, iv., 240.
GIBBETS, the year of three, iii., 566.
GIBBON, GEN. JOHN, at Gettysburg, iv., 556 ; at Cold
Harbor, 577.
GIBBONS, ii., 427, note.
GIBBONS, SARAH, at Boston, ii., 240, note.
GIBBS, MAJOR CALEB, iii., 561.
GIBBS, SAMUEL, killed, iv., 235.
GIBSON, REV. RICHARD, at Portsmouth, ii., 421.
GIBSON, WILLIAM, of East Jersey, iii., 6, note.
GIDDINGS, JOSHUA R , anti-slavery resolutions, and
resignation, iv., 345 ; in Free Soil convention, 403.
GILA RIVER, ii , 588 et seq.
GILBERT, BARTHOLOMEW, in Virginia, i., 259, 260.
GILBERT, SIR HUMPHREY, his Discourse, i., 229 ; voy
ages, 236, 240.
GILBERT, MATTHEW, of New Haven, ii., 30, note, 322.
GILBERT, RALEIGH, i.,268; in the Popham expedi
tion. 317,320.
GILBERT, SIR OTHO, i., 233.
GILLAM, trader in N. C., ii., 286.
GILLMORE, GEN. QUINCY A., reduces FortPulaski, iv.,
466 ; reduces Fort Wagner, 589.
GIOIA, FLAVIA, introduces magnetic needle, i., 35.
GIRDLESTONE, DR. THOMAS, iii., 460, note.
GIRTY, SIMON, iv., 116.
GIRTY'S TOWN destroyed, iv., 114.
GIST, CHRISTOPHER, explorer, iii., 258.
GIST, COLONEL, at Edge Hill, iii., 564 ; at battle of
Camden, iv., 36.
GLADWYN, MAJOR, iii., 314, 316 et seq.
GLAMMIS, LADY, burnt as a witch, ii., 452.
GLEASON, CAPTAIN, killed, iii., 310.
GLES, Governor of South Carolina, iii., 295.
GLOUCESTER, Mass., iii., 416.
GLOUCESTER, Va., fortified, iv., 71 : invested, 73.
624
INDEX TO THE FOUR VOLUMES.
GLOUCESTER COUNTY, Va., ii., 304, 305.
GLOUCESTER POINT, ii., 152 ; Bacon at, 311.
GLOVER, COL., iii., 502; General, 513 ; at Trenton,
528, 575 ; quoted, 582, 587.
GLOVEU, MRS., hanged iu Boston, ii., 455, 456.
GLOVER, WILLIAM, of North Carolina, iii., 87.
GODFREY. EDWARD, in York, Me., i., 336.
GODYN, SAMUEL, New Netherlaud patroou, i., 431.
GOFFE, COL. WILLIAM, ii., 379, 410.
GOLD, in first Colonial Congress, iii., 20.
GOLD, LIEUT. -COL., iii., 54S.
GOLDE.V GATE, THK, at San Francisco, Ii., 576.
" GOLDEN LION," THE, in the Severn, ii., 218.
GOLDSHOROUGH, Louis M., commands Roanoke ex
pedition, iv., 462.
GOMEZ, STEPHEN, on North American coast, i., 151.
GO.NDOLA, iii., 379, note.
GONDOMAR, and the Virginia company, i , 481.
GOOCH, WILLIAM, Governor of Va., iii., 76, 232.
GOOD, SARAH, tried for witchcraft, ii., 458.
GOOD FEELING, ERA OF, iv., 282.
GOOKIN, KEV. MR., ii., 19.
GOOKIN, CHARLES, of Penn., Hi., 185, 186.
GOODWIN, a witch, ii., 455, 456.
GOODYEAR, STEPHEN, of New Haven, ii., 125.
GORDON, LIEUT., iii., 323
GORDON, THK REV. ALEXANDER, iii., 153.
GORDON, PATRICK, of Penn , iii., 188, 189.
GORDON, ROBERT, of East Jersey, iii., 6, note.
GORDON, THOMAS, of Va., ii., 317.
GORDONSVILLE, iv., 508.
GORE, LIEUT., in Mexico, iv., 384.
GORGEANA, " City •' of. at York, Me., ii., 423.
GORGES, SIR FERNANDO, Governor of Plymouth,
England, i., 316; sends expeditions to Maine, 329,
331; before Parliament, 332 ; secures Laconia Grant
with Mason, 333; Winthrop on, ii.,56; Me. and
N. II. Patent of, 419 et seg., 427.
GORGES, JOHN, i.,334.
GORGES, ROBERT, and Plymouth Co., i., 333, 334.
GORTON, SAMUEL, ii., 68 ; at Providence, 69 et seq.;
at Shawomet, 74, 75, note ; summoned to Boston,
79 ; Attacked, 80 et seq. ; prisoner, 85 et seq. ; re
turns to Shawomet, 97 et seq.; petition of, 113.
GOSHEN, Penn., iii., 556.
GOSNOLD, ANTONY, drowned at Jamestown, i., £90.
GOSNOLD, BARTHOLOMEW, voyages to New England,
i.. 259, 262, 265; member of Virginia Council,
270 ; death of, 275.
GOSPORT NAVY-YARD, destruction at, iv., 449.
GOSSELYN, GEN., takes Castine, iv., 216.
GumuuKs, DOMINIQUE DK, in Florida, i., 215, 216, 220.
COVE, EDWARD, anti-renter in X. II., ii., 429.
GOVERNORS, ROYAL, iii., 25 et seq.
GOVERNOR'S ISLAND, i., 444 : fortified, 490.
(iowANUS, Long Island, ii.,343.
GOWANUS CKEEK, iii., 498.
GRACE, iii., 49, note ; 215, note.
GRAFFENRIED, BARON DE, iii., 92.
GRAFPON, DUKE OF, ii., 292 ; iii., 363, 365.
GRAHAM, WILLIAM A., iv., 403.
GRAINE, JASPER, of New Haven, ii., 155, note.
GRANBY, withdraws from the Cabinet, iii., 365.
GRANBY, FORT, reduction of, iv., 60.
GRAND EMBARKATION, THE, iii., 151.
GRAND ISHND, iv., 355.
GRAND PRE, Treaty, ii., 550 ; iii., 277 el seq.
GRANGANAMEO, Indian chief, i., 244, 248.
GRANGER, (JEN. GORDON, at the battle of Chicka-
mauga, iv., 562.
GRANT, DAME, ii., 539.
GRANT, GENERAL, ii., 493, 499, 556.
GRANT, GEN. ULYSSES S., in Mexico, iv., 384; in
command at Cairo, 45S ; captures Fort Done Ison,
517 ; in Shiloh campaign, 521 et seq. ; begins oper
ations against Vicksburg, 538 ; captures Vicks-
burg, 559 ; at Chattanooga, 5ti5 ; made Lieutenant-
general, 569 ; overland campaign, 570 et seq. ;
crosses the James, 578; besieges Petersburg, 589
et seq. ; captures Lee, 598.
GRANT, LIEUT. -COL. . iii., 500.
GRANT, MAJOR, at Grant's Hill, iii , 300, £74.
GRANTHAM, ii., 315
GRANTS, the Hampshire, iii., 430.
GRANT'S HILL, iii., 300.
GRANVILLE, LORD, iii., 83, 85.
GRASSE. COUNT DE, ordered to the American Coast,
iv., 65 ; defeats Graves, 71.
GRAVE CREEK, Virginia, mound at, i., 27.
GRAVES, ADMIRAL, iii. ,416; defeated, iv., 71.
GRAVESEND, L. I., ii., 145.
GRAVESEND BAY, iii., 496, 497.
GRAY (Boston Massacre,) iii., 363, note.
GRAY (Mass. Committee of Safety), iii., 386.
GRAY, ROBERT, iv., 170.
GRAYSON, COL. WILLIAM, ill., 495.
GREAT ISLAND, N. II., '• stone-throwinsr " at, ii., 467.
GREAT MEADOWS, iii., 260, 2t9.
" GREAT REPUBLIC,- THE, iv., 459.
GREAT SAVAGE MOUNTAIN, iii., 265.
GREBLE, JOHN T., killed, iv., 450.
GREELEY. HORACE, on secession, iv.,440; letter to
Count Mercier, 512.
GREEN, DUFF, iv., 298 ; on the abolitionists, 326.
GREEN, REV. ROGER, in N. C., ii., 271.
GREEN, THOMAS, Gov.of Maryland, i., 514 ; ii., 214.
GREEN BAY, Wisconsin, ii., 503 ; iii., 256.
GREENE, COL. CHRISTOPHER, iii ,562.
GREENE, JOHN, ii., 40, note ; Weston controversy, 71,
75, note : goes to England, 98 : petition of, ll-'j.
GREENE, NATHANAF.L, iii , 394, 495; Brig.-gcn.. 4<i7,
note : quoted, 417 , at N. Y., 462 : at Fort Washing
ton, 518; at Trenton, 528; at Brandy wine, 554;
at Germantmvn. 559 ; at Valley Forge, 593 ; in com
mand at Springfield, iv., 15 ; supersedes Gates, 40 ;
his southern campaign, 40 et seq.
GREENLAND, i., 37 ; visited by the English, 231.
GREENLAND, N. II., ii., 441.
GREENLKAF, STEPHEN, of Nantucket, iii.. 2, note.
GREEN MOUNTAIN BOYS, iii., 131, 581 : iv., 79.
GREENS, JOHNSON'S LOYAL, iii., 576, 578.
GREEN'S FARMS destroyed, iii., 615.
GREENSPRING. Va., ii.. 314, 315; assembly at, 317.
GREENVILLE, FORT, iv., llti.
GREENWAY, ('APT. ROBERT, ii., 489.
GREENWICH, Conn., ii., 138.
GREENWICH BAY, Conn , ii., 138.
GREGG, LIEUT .-COL., iii., 581.
GRENADIER ISLAND, iv., 202.
GRENVILLE, GEORGE, iii., 333 ; the Stamp Act, 338,
347 ; his connection with Jay's treaty, iv.. 124.
GKKNVIU.K, SIR RICHARD, voyages of, i., 246, 248, 251.
GREY, LIEUT., killed at Savannah, iv., 10.
GIUDLEY, iii. ,394, 426.
GRIFFIN, ('APT., at Bull Run, iv., 453.
GRIFFIN, COL., at Burlington, iii., 526.
'• GRIFFIN," La Salle's vessel, Ii., 510.
GRIJALVA, HERNANDO DE, in California, ii., 564.
GRIJALVA, JOHN DE, visits Florida, i., 148.
GRIMOLFSON. BIARNE, a Norse, i.. 46, 49.
GRISWOLD, FORT, capture and massacre, iv., 68.
GRONAU, iii., 150.
GROOME, SAMUEL, of East Jersey, iii., 6, note.
GROTON, burned, iv., 69.
GROVETON, battle of, iv., 496.
GUADALUPE HIDALGO, treaty of, iv.. :!S7.
GUANAHANI, first land seen by Columbus, i., 113.
GUERID, a \orse woman, i., 45 ; mother of first Euro
pean child born in America, 54.
GUERCHF.VILLE, MARQUISE DE, sends Jesuit mission
aries to Maine, i., 323.
GUERNACHE, a French colonist, i., 195.
"GUERRIERE,-' THE, captured, iv , 192.
GUEST, in Philadelphia, ii., 492.
GUILFORD, Conn.,ii., 15,31 ; settlers from, 323.
GUILFORD COURT HOUSE, battle of, iv., 46.
GUINEA (African coast), conflicts in, ii., 330.
" GUINEA,'' tin; ship of the Va. Couim., ii., 214
GUION, CAPT., iv., 139.
GUITAR, COLONEL, iv., 542.
GULP OF CALIFORNIA (Red Sea), etc., ii., 566.
GULF OF MEXICO, Garay in, i., 149.
GUNBOATS, fight on the Mississippi, iv., 520.
GUNBY, COL., at Guilford Court House, iv., 47 ; panic
of his regiment at Hobkirk's Hill, 58.
GUNNBIORN, discovers Greenland, 5., 37, 38.
GUNPOWDER, •supply of, iii., 413, 515.
GUSTAVUS ADOLPHUS, i., 465.
HAARFAGKR, KING HAROLD, of Norway, i.,
37.
HABEAS CORPUS, writ of in Virginia., iii., 72.
FXDEX TO THE FOUR VOLUMES.
625
HACKENSACK, N. .1., iii., 236.
HACKENSACK BRIDGE, iii., 521.
HADLEV, .Mass., tights at, ii., 409, 415.
HAGKKSTOWN, Lee marches on, iv., 501.
HAGUE, Declaration of the, i., 347.
H.VINES, PRIVATE THOMAS, iii., 586.
HAKLUYT, .RICHARD, Cabot's voyage by, I., 131 ; his
patent, 267.
HALDIMAND, Governor of Canada, iv., 81.
HALE, COLONEL, iii., 574; at Bemus's Heights, 584.
HALE, MRS., a witch, ii., 463.
HALE, JOHN P., nominated for President, iv., 403.
HALE, SIR MATTHEW, on witchcraft, ii., 452.
HALE, CAPT. NATHAN, iii., 511 ; comparison with
Andre, iv., 27.
" HALF-MOON,'' on the Hudson, i., 354.
HALIFAX, KARL, Adventure galley, iii., 33, 271;
stamp tax, 337.
HALIFAX, N. S., how named, iii., 271.
HALL, JUDGE, arrested, iv., 237.
HALL, LIEUT.-COL., at McGowan's Ford, iv., 45.
HALL, HILAND, cited, iii., 435, note.
HALL, THOMAS, of N. V., ii., 123, note
HALLECK, HENRY W., sent to California, iv., 373;
in command in the Mississippi Valley, 478; mado
General-in-chief, 493; his Shiloh campaign, 521
ft. xftf. ; made chief of staff, 570.
HALLETT, WILLIAM, of Flushing, ii., 239.
HALLOWELL, COL. NORWOOD, iv., 544.
HALSEY, sent to Albany, iii., 433.
HAMDEN, JOHN, visits Massasoit, i.. 407, and note.
HAMKT, alliance with in Tripoli, iv., 100.
HAMILTON, (JEN., ii., 568 el an/.
HAMILTON, tiov., captures Vincennes, iii., 611.
HAMILTON, ALEXANDER, iii., 495, 515; warns Con
gress, 557 ; in constitutional convention, iv., 101 ;
becomes Secretary of the Treasury, 105 ; connec
tion with Miranda, 140; killed, 149.
HAMILTON, ANDREW, of East Jersey, iii., 9 ; of
Penn., 178, 179 ; Zenger libel, 223.
HAMILTON, .1 AMES, Governor of Penn., iii. ,191 ; Gov
ernor of South Carolina, iv., 307.
HAMI.IN. HANNIBAL, elected Vice-president, 434.
HAMMOND, GEORGE, iv., 123.
HAMPDEN, JOHN, ii., 374.
HAMPTON, N. H., Wheelwright at, ii., 423.
HAMPTON, REV. MR., iii , 39.
HAMPTON, WADE, defeated by Salaberry, iv., 2(12.
HAMPTON, WADE, driven out of Columbia by Sher
man, iv., 598.
HAMPTON ROADS, naval battle in, iv., 404.
HANCOCK, Mass., iii., 433.
HANCOCK, JOHN, his sloop, iii., 357 ; on proposed de
struction of Boston, 423.
HANCOCK, GKN. WINFIELD S., at Fredericksburg, iv.,
508, at Gettysburg, 552; in overland campaign,
570 ft set/. ; at Petersburg, 591.
HANCOCK'S BRIDGE, skirmish at, iii., 6CO.
HAND, GEN., iii. ,497, 628; at Newtown,iv., 4.
HAND'S COVE, Vt., iii., 434.
HANGING ROCK, Sumter's attack on, iv., 32.
HANHAM, THOMAS, voyage of, i., 317.
" HANNAH," capture of the, iv., 68.
HANOVER COURT HOUSE, battle of, iv., 475.
HANSON, ALEX., his office sacked, iv., 187.
HARBOR ISLAND, iii., 292.
HARCOURT, LIEUT.-UOL., iii., 524.
HARDEE, W. J., at Shiloh, iv., 523 : Savannah, 586.
HARDENBURG, ARNOI.DUS VAN, ii., 123, note, 131.
HARDIN, COL., in Harmar's campaign, iv., 114.
HARDIN, JOHN J., killed, iv., 375.
HARD-SHELLS AND SOFT SHELLS, iv., 415, note.
HARDY, OLD FORT, iii., 592.
HARDY, SIR THOMAS, captures Eastport and bom
bards Stoningtou, iv., 216.
HARFORD, HENRY, of Mil., iii., 78.
HARIOT, THOMAS, in Va., i., 246 ; on tobacco, 250.
HARMAR'S CAMPAIGN, iv., 114.
HARLEM, N. Y., village of. ii., 245.
HARLEM HEIGHTS, iii., 505 et seq.
HARNEY, WILLIAM S., iv., 455.
HARPER'S FERRY, John Brown's raid on, iv., 430 :
Miles's surrender at, 500.
HARRIS, THOMAS, ii., 113, note.
HARRIS, WILLIAM, ii., 40, note
HARRISBURG CONVENTION, iv., 356.
V.M.. iv. 40
HARRISON, MR., iii., 419 ; resolution of independ
ence, 484.
HARRISON, WM. HENRY, attempts to make Illinois
and Indiana slave States, iv., 109 ; at Tippecanoe,
182 ; expedition against Detroit, 193 ; invades Can
ada, 199 ; election to Presidency and death, 359.
HARRISON'S LANDING, iv., 489.
HARROD, pioneer, iii., 610.
HARROD'S STATION, iii., 610.
HARSIN, JACOB, quoted, iii., 463.
HART, JOHN, Governor of Md.,iii., 78.
HART, RALPH, iii., 526, note.
HART, THOMAS, of East Jersey, iii., 6 note.
HARTFORD, Connecticut, settled, i., 552; 11., 6, 9; del
egate, 22 ; boundary, 137, 247, 256 ; action concern
ing Dutch, 351.
" HARTFORD,'' THE, at New Orleans, iv., 528.
HARTFORD CONVENTION, THE, iv., 229 et seq.
HARTSIIORNE, HUGH, of East Jersey, iii., 6, note.
HARTSVILLE, Penn., iii., 551.
HARVARD COLLEGE and Whitefleld, iii., 207.
HARVEY, SIR JOHN, in Virginia, i., 484 ; favors Mary
land colonists, 501 ; sends Clay borne to England,
502; deposed, 503, 504 ; ii., 200, 201.
HARVEY, JOHN, of Northern Carolina, ii., 288.
HASLET, his regiment, iii., 494 ; killed, 535.
HATCHY, KING, iv., 249.,
HATFIELD, Mass., ii., 414 ; attacked, 415.
HATHORNE, CAPT., ii., 441.
HATHORNE, JUSTICE, on witchcraft, ii., 458.
HATTEUAS EXPEDITION, ii., 458.
HAUSEGGER'S BATTALION, iv. , 529, note.
HAVERIIILL, Mass., ii., 406 ; Indians attack, iii., 110.
HAVILAND, COL., iii. ,311.
HAWES, THOMAS, iv., 531.
HAWKINS, SIR JOHN, i., 203.
HAWKINS, CAPTAIN RICHARD, i., 329
HAWLEY, JEROME, of Md.,i.,489; treasurer of Va.,
ii., 200, 201.
HAWLEY, JESSE, projects the Erie Canal, iv., 275.
HAYES, CAPTAIN EDWARD, I., 232, 238.
HAYNE, ISAAC, execution of, iv., 62.
HAYNE, ROBERT Y., predicts a solid South, iv.,287;
his debate with Webster, 305.
HAYNES, JOHN, of Conn., ii., 23; action on Mianto-
nomo, 93, 96.
HAYWOOD, JOHN, of East Jersey, iii., 6, note.
HEALD, NATHAN, at Fort Dearborn, iv., 188.
HEAMANS, CAPTAIN, of the Golden Lion, ii.,219.
HEARD, ELIZABETH, escape at Dover, ii., 445.
HEARD, GENERAL, iii., 495.
HEATH, GEN., in command on the Hudson, iv., 67.
HEATH, SIR ROBERT, grantee of S. C., ii., 270.
HEATH, WILLIAM, iii., 366, 391, 392, 4()7, note; sent
to N. Y., 429, 462, 495 ; Memoir*, 515, note.
HKATHCOTE, GEORGE, iii., 143, note.
HF.EMSKERK, Arctic voyage of, i., 344
HKF.MSTEDE. (See Ileuipstead.)
HEERMANS, AUGUSTINE, ii., l'_3, note : commissioner
to Md ,250.
HEINS, of La Salle's expedition, ii., 520.
IlEiNTZELMAN, GEN. S. P., at Bull Kun, iv., 451 ; in
Peninsular campaign, 467.
HELENA, Ark., site of, ii., 508.
HELGI and FINNBOGI, Norsemen, i., 55, 58.
HELL FIRE CLUB, THE, iii., 137.
HELL GATE, ii., 35 ; description of, 342 ; iii., 513.
HELLULAND, Newfoundland, i., 40.
HELM, CAPTAIN, Hi., 611, note.
HEMP, laws of Conn., on, ii., 26.
HEMPSTEAD (Heemstede), ii., 35, 145, 343.
HEN, settler, killed in Va., ii., 294.
HENCHMAN. CAPTAIN, in Philip's War, ii., 415.
HENDRICK, 'Indian Chief, iii., 284, 286.
HENDRICKS, CAPTAIN, killed, iii., 448.
HENDRICKSEN, CORNELIS, in Delaware Bay, I., 362.
HENLEY, COMMODORE, iv., 252
HENNEPIN, FATHER, on the Illinois, ii., 511.
HENRICO, in Virginia, i., 299, 481.
HENRY THE NAVIGATOR, PRINCE, i., 97.
HENRY, JOHN, his conspiracy, iv , 228.
HENRY, PATRICK, on Stamp Act, iii., 339, 340, 596 ;
on necessity for union, iv., 90.
HENRY, FORT, captured, iv., 516.
HERJULF, the Northman, i., 38.
HERJULFNESS, in Greenland, i., 39.
626
INDEX TO THE FOUR VOLUMES.
HERKIMER, GEN. NICHOLAS, iii.,572, 577 et seq.
HEKMSDOBF, CAPT., iii , 151.
HERON, GEN. F. J., in Arkansas, iv., 542.
HERONS" ISLANDS, in the Potomac, i., 492.
HERRICK, CAPT., iii., 434, 581.
HERHICK, MARSHALL G., on witchcraft, ii., 458.
HERRING CREEK, Mil., ii., 218
HESSIANS, THE, iii., 493: at Trenton, 430 ; at Fort
Mercer, 563; in Rhode Island, 607; 3,000 arrive
at New York, iv , 67. (See also Mercenaries.)
HETT, RENE, iii., 232, note.
HEWES, CAPTAIN, at Cape Ann, i., 418.
HEWES, JOSEPH, iii., 485.
MEYER, COL. WILLIAM, iii.. 462.
llEYES, PlETER, at Swaaneiidael, i., 433.
llmiiiNS, MRS., a witch, ii., 455.
HICKS, \VHITEHEAD, iii., 458.
HICKS, WILL, his mansion house, iii., 492.
HIEROGLYPHICS, in America and Asia, i., 12.
HIGGINSON, FRANCIS, teacher at Salem, i., 521 ; fare
well to England, 528 ; death of, 535.
HIGH HILLS, Greene retires to, iv., 62.
HILL, GEX. AMBROSE P., in Peninsular campaign, iv.,
480 ; in Gettysburg campaign, 551 ; in overland
campaign, 572 et seq.
HILL, BENJAMIN H., iv., 585.
HILL, D. 11., in Peninsular campaign, iv., 475 et seq.
HILL, EDWARD, of Md., i., 512.
HILL, GEN., sent to Quebec, iii., 45.
HILL, LIEUT. -COL., iii., 574.
HILL, MAJOR, at Stony Point, iii., 615.
HILL, ISAAC, iv.,298, 300.
HILL, JOHN, chart of N. Y., iii., 492, note.
HILL, RICHARD, in the Delaware, iii., 180.
HILLHOUSE, CAPTAIN JAMKS, iii., 515.
HlLLSIiOROUGH, EARL OF, Hi. ,#54, 363, 366.
HILLYAR, JAMES, iv., 222.
HILTON, MRS., her house on fire, iii., 227.
HIMOLLEMICO, Indian Chief, iv., 253.
HINCKLEY, THOMAS, of Plymouth, ii., 389.
HINDMAN, GEN. THOS. C., at Prairie Grove, iv., 542.
HINDMAN, FORT, iv., 540.
HINGHAM, Mass., old meeting-house at, ii., 58 ; inci
dent at, 58.
HINMAN, COLONEL, at Ticonderoga, Mi., 437.
HINMAN, MRS., attempts to kill Arnold, iv., 70.
HINTON'S HISTORY, mutilated, iv., 335.
HISPANIOLA, supposed to bo Ophir, i., 113, 120.
HITCHCOCK, COL. DANIEL, iii.. 497, 535.
HITE, JOIST, iii., 74.
HOAR, SAMUEL, iv., 396.
HODART, REV. PETER, ii . 58.
HOBUES, on witchcraft, ii., 452.
HOHKIRK'S HILL, battle of, iv., 58.
HOKOKEN, bought by Pauw, i.,432; burned bv In
dians, ii., 231.
IlociiELAGA, river of, i., 133 ; town of, 185.
HODSHONE, ROBERT, a Friend, ii., 240 et seq.
HoEi-SuiN, discoverer of Fusang, i., 85.
HOG ISLAND, skirmish at, iii., 396.
HOGG, MRS. (Negro Plot), iii., 225 et seq.
HOGKINS. (See KankamaguB.)
HoLiiOURNE, ADMIRAL, at Halifax, iii., 291.
HOLCROFT, JOHN, iv., 120.
HOLDEN, RANDALL, ii., 44 note ; Gorton controversy,
69, 71, 75 ; goes to England, 98 ; petition of, 113.
HOLDEN, ROBERT, of N. C., ii., 287.
HOLDER, CHRISTOPHER, at Martha's Vineyard, ii.,lSl ;
Plymouth, 185; Salem, 186 ; Boston, 186, 187.
HOI.LAENDARE, PETER, Gov. at Fort Chistina, i., 469.
HOLLAND, rupture with England, iv., 76, note.
HOLLAND, ROGER, iii , 143, note.
HOLI.IMAN, EZEKIEL, ii.,40, note ; rebaptizes Roger
Williams, 69.
HOLLY SPRINGS, iv., 539.
HOLMES, ADMIRAL, iii., 304.
HOLMES, ENSIGN, Pontiac's plot, iii., 314 ; death, 321.
HOLMES, GKN., iv., 480.
HOLMES, GEORGE, at Fort Nassau, i., 441.
HOLMES, JOHN, iv., 267.
HOLMES, REV. OBADIAH, at Lynn, ii., 106. 108 et seq.
HOLMES, WILLIAM, in Connecticut, i., 548.
HOLT, CHIKP JUSTICE, on witch trials, ii., 453.
HOLT (Negro Plot), iii., 240.
HOLT, MARY, punished at Hartford, ii. , 26.
HOLTON, DR., delegate in Congress, iv., 96, note.
HOLY ALLIANCE, iv., 279.
HOLYOKE, CAPTAIN, at Turner's Falls, ii., 414.
HONDIUS, map of Drake's Bay. ii., 576, 577.
HONEYWOOD, Sin PHILIP, ii., 208
HOOD, ADMIRAL, defeated, iv., 71.
HOOD, GEN. JOHN B., at Gettysburg, iv.,554; su
persedes Johnston, 582 : at Nashville, 584.
HOOD, stamp distributor in Md., iii., 345.
HOOKER, GEN. JOSEPH, in Mexico, iv., 383 ; in Penin
sular campaign, 470 et se</. : opinion of McClellan's
retreat, 489 ; receives McDowell's corps, 499 ; at.
Antietam, 502 ; at Fredericksburg, 5(19 ; receives
command of Army of Potomac, 511 ; succeeds
Burnside, 545 : Chancellorgville campaign, 546 et
seq. ; resigns, 552; battle above clouds, 665.
HOOKER, THOMAS, at Newton, i., 540 ; in Conn., 551.
HOOKER, REV. THOMAS, in Connecticut, ii., 37.
HOPEWELL, N. J.. iii., 602.
HOPKINS. BISHOP, iv., 398.
HOPKINS, EDWARD, ii., 23 ; in Boston, 27 ; in Lon
don, 148.
HOPKINS, ESEK, Commodore, iii.. 417.
HOPKINS. MATTHEW, " witch-finder," ii., 452.
HOPKINS', STEVEN, i., 393. note, 402.
HOPPKR, ISAAC T., iv., 398.
HOPSON, PEREGRINE T., of N. S., iii., 275, note.
HORE, MR., voyage of, i., 226.
HORN POINT, Annapolis. Md., ii., 218.
" HORNET," THE, blockaded, iv., 207 : captures the
Penguin. 225.
HORSESHOE BEND, battle of, iv.. 210.
HORSEY, SAMUEL, of S. C., iii., Iu5.
HORTALES & Co., iii.. 545.
HOSMER, killed at Concord, iii., 390.
HOSSETT, GILLIS, Swedish governor, i., 435.
HOUGH, FRANKLIN B.. iii., 298, note.
HOUSTON, SAMUEL, in Jackson's campaign, iv., 203 ;
goes to Texas, 362.
How, CAPTAIN DANIEL, on Long Island, ii., 34, 124.
HOWARD, CAPTAIN, at Chapultepec, iv., 383.
HOWARD. LIEUT. -COL., at battle of Cowpens, iv., 41 :
at Guilford Court House, 47.
HOWARD, GEN. 0. 0., at Chancellorsville, iv.. 546 ;
at Gettysburg, 553 et seq. ; in march to the sea,
585 et seq.
HOWE, ADMIRAL, at N. Y., iii., 493 ; meets Adams
and Franklin, 512.
HOWE, LORD, iii., 297 ; killed, 298.
HOWE, GENERAL, in Boston, iii.. 396,411, 421,422;
despatches, 424 ; evacuates Boston, 427 ; at N.Y.,
492, 513 ; correspondence, 541 ; sails from N. Y.,
551 ; advances on Phila., 553 ; at Germantown, 5(JO ;
Chestnut Hill, 564 ; Burgoyne, 568, note.
HOWE, GEN. ROBERT, at Savannah, iii., 612.
HOWEL. a prince of Wales, i., 68.
HOWES, THE, proclamation in N. J., iii., 521.
HOWLAND, JOHN, of the Mayjlower, i., 393. note.
HUBATES INDIANS, ii., 583.
HURHARD, iv., 252.
HUBBARD, COLONEL, iii., 581.
IluiiBARD, REV. MR., iii., 39.
HIBBARD, HENRY, iv., 396.
HUBBARD. JAMKS, of Long Island, ii., 145, 150.
Hi BBARD, WILLIAM, on Gorton, ii., 68.
HUBBARDTON, battle of, iii., 574.
HUBERT, at New Orleans, ii., 538.
HUCKS, ROBERT, iii., 143, note.
Hi DDE, ANDREAS, at Fort Nassau, i., 472 : ii., 151.
HUDSON, HENRY, his voyages, i., 345 et ft/.
HUDSON RIVER, ii., 35.
HUGER, GEN., iv., 472.
HUGER, ISAAC, at Guilford Court House, iv., 46.
HUGHES, QUARTERMASTER, iii., 502.
HUGHES, stamp distributor in Philadelphia, iii., 345.
IIuGiiso.N, JOHN (Negro Plot), iii., 225 tt stq.
HUGUENOTS, in South America, i., 189.
HULL, CAPT. EWDARD, ii., 143.
HULL, ISAAC, service in the Mediterranean, iv., 156;
commanding the Constitution, 192.
HULL, CAPT. WILLIAM, iii , 515, 530, 586; his cam
paign and surrender, iv., 187-189.
HUMPHREYS, COL., accompanies Washington to New
York, iv., 105 note.
HUMPHREYS, GEN., at Fredericksburg, iv., 510.
HUMPHREYS, LIEUT., killed, iii., 448.
HUNT, GEN. HENRY J., at Gettysburg, iv., f>55.
INDEX TO THE FOUR VOLUMES.
627
HUNT, ('APT. THOMAS, kidnaps Indians, i., 328, 329.
HUNT, REV. ROBERT, of Jamestown colony, i., 269.
HUNTER, DAVID, at Bull Run, iv., 451; supersedes
Fremont, 458 : his emancipation order, 466 ; enlists
negroes, 467.
HI-NTER, ROBT., of N. Y., ill., 43, 45, 47 ; of Va., 71.
HUNTING-TON, COLONEL, iii., 500, 548.
HUNTINGTON (Long Island), ii., 35.
HUNTSVILLE, Ala., iv., 526.
HURON INDIANS, ii., 499 et seq.
HUSSEY, CHRISTOPHER, of Xantucket, iii., 2.
HUTCHINSON, ANNE, murdered by Indians, i., 457 : at
Boston, 553, 544 ; removes to Connecticut, 556 :
ii., 41, 42, loetseq.
HI-TCHINSON, Kmv-ARD, ii., 44, note, 102 : iii , 116.
HUTCHINSON, EDWARD, JR., ii., 44, note.
HUTCHINSON, THOMAS, of Mass., iii., 209; Chief Jus
tice, 332; Lieut.-gov., his house ransacked, 343;
(Jov.,362, 3>3; letters, 358,
HUTCHINSON, WILLIAM, ii., 44, note, 47.
HYDE, EDWARD, of X. C., iii., 88, 93.
HYDKR AI.I, iii., 364.
HYLACOMYLUS. (See Waldseuiiiller. )
IACAX. (See Axacan.)
ICELAND, i., 36; Columbus at, 101.
IUERVILLE, LEMOYNE D', in Me., ii., 449; in La. ,522
^.sfV.,525; iii., 19.
ILLINOIS, Franklin's plan for, iii., 366.
ILLINOIS HIVER, discovered, ii., 509.
IMMIGRATION, restricted in Pa., iii., 188 ; fluctuation
of, iv., 311.
IMPORTS AND EXPORTS, value of, iv., 93.
IMPRESSMENT, in Boston, iii., 218, 359.
IMPROVEMENTS, internal, iv., 274.
INDEPENDENCE, Declaration of, iii., 470 et seq. ;
growth of the idea, 470-182 ; committee on, 483 ;
paragraph on the slave-trade omitted, 485.
INDEPENDENCE OF THE UNITED STATES acknowledged,
iv.. 76.
INDIAN ATROCITIES in X. 11 and Mass., iii., 122.
INDIAN CHIEFS, in England, iii., 44.
INDIAN COMPANY (The Western Co.), ii., 532.
INDIAN WARS, in Me., X. H., and Mass., iii., 124, 192 :
expedition against Six Nations, iv., 2 el seq.; hos
tilities in West incited by British, 112 et seq. ; St.
Clair routed, 115 ; Wayne's decisive campaign, 116
et seq. : war with the Creeks. 202 et seq. ; first Semi-
nole war, 246 et seq. ; Black Hawk War, 295 ; second
Seminole War, 350 e,l seq.
INDIANS, of Xew England, ii., 17 et seq. ; of the
Northwest, iii., 48 , campaign against the South
ern, 81 ; as slaves, 82; treaties with, in Carolina,
104 : at Coweta, Ga , 157 : Penn's treaty with, 177 ;
Eastern, treaty with, 297 ; treaty of 1795, iv., 118 ;
in War of 1812, 188 ft seq. ; troubles of, in Ga., 287.
INGHAM, SAMUEL D , iv., 300.
INGLE, RICHARD, in Maryland, i., 511, 512.
INGOLDSHY, K., in N. Y.J iii., 21, 25; in N. J.,40,43.
INGOLF, EARL, colony of in Iceland, i., 37.
INGRAM, JOSEPH, with Bacon, ii., 313 et seq.
INNIS, HARRY, iv., 114.
INNOCENT VIII., POPE, on witches, ii., 451.
INOCULATION in America, iii., 127.
INSCRIPTION ROCK, ii., 584, 585, and note.
" INTREPID,'' THE, explosion of, iv., 160.
INWOOD, iii., 518.
IRELAND, pirate, iii., 34.
IRISH CATHOLICS as soldiers, iii., 423
IRON, manufacture of, iii., 246.
"IRONSIDES," OLD, iv., 193.
IROO.UOIS INDIANS (see Five Nations), ii., 507, 511.
IRVINE, COL., at Three Rivers, iii., 450.
ISLAND NUMBER TEN, iv., 519.
ISLES OF SHOALS, ii., 425 et seq.
ISLE AUX Xoix, iii., 302, 450.
ISLE D'ORLEANS, iii., 304.
ISRAEL, LOST TRIBES. OF, i., 36.
" ITASCA,'' THE, at Xew Orleans, iv., 627.
IUKA, battle of, iv., 532.
IZARD, GEN., ordered to the Niagara, iv., 215.
TACK'S BAY, Cal., ii., 576, 577.
JACKSON, Miss., occupied by Federals, 559.
JACKSON, ANDREW, campaign against the Southern
Indians, iv.. 203 : at Horseshoe Bend. 210; at Xew
Orleans, 233 et seq.; executes militiamen, 236;
Jett'erson's opinion of him, 237 ; opinions on the
Florida question, 252; campaign in Florida, 253 ;
restores a fugitive slave, 255, note ; seizes Pensa-
cola, 256; his " Exposition," 256; candidate for
President, 277 ; his character, 291 ; elected Presi
dent, 296; defends Mrs. Eaton, 299: hostility to
U. S. Bank, 300; his Union toast, 308, note ; at
tempts to get Texas, 362.
JACKSON, CLAIBORNE F., Gov. of Missouri, iv., 454.
JACKSON, " COPENHAGEN," iv., 181.
JACKSON, FORT, iv., 526.
JACKSON, FRANCIS, iv., 330.
JACKSON, RICHARD, of Scrooby, Va., i., 376.
JACKSON, THOMAS J., at Bull Run, iv., 453; on the
Shenandoah, 474; at second Bull Run, 496; in
Antietam campaign, 500 : killed, 548.
JACOBS, GEORGE, accused of witchcraft, ii., 462.
JALAPA, captured, iv., 377.
JAMAICA (Long Island), ii., 35.
JAMAICA (Rust-dorp), ii., 245 ; (Crafford), 257: iii.,
498, 500.
JAMES I., his code of laws for Va., i., 268 ; letter on
the Puritans, 371 ; dealings with the Ley den con
gregations, 381, 382; jealousy of the Virginia Co.,
476, 477, 482 ; death of, 484.
JAMES II. (See York, Duke of.) iii., 8, 10, 12.
JAMES, FORT, X. Y., iii., 3.
JAMES ISLAND, iii., 467 ; Hunter's expedition lands
on, iv., 467.
JAMES, MAJOR, his house sacked, iii., 344: his en
counter with Captain Ardesoif, iv., 13.
JAMES, REUBEN, iy., 158.
JAMES. THOMAS, ii., 40, note.
JAMESON, lawyer, iii., 230, note.
JAMESON, COL., blunder in regard to Andre, iv., 24.
JAMESTOWN, Va., settled, i., 271 ; its unhealthfulness,
290; industries in, 478 : saved from the massacre
of 1622, 480: surrender, ii., 211: burned, 311;
fight at, iv., 57.
JAMESTOWN, R. I., burned, iii., 417.
JAMIESON, COL., iv., 13.
JANOS INDIANS, ii., 591.
JANS, ANNETJE, widow of Bogardus. ii., 121.
JANSEN, JAN, of Fort Nassau, i., 470, 472.
JANSEN, MICHAEL, ii., 123, note.
JAPAN, Marco Polo's account of, i., 96; Perry's mis
sion to, iv., 402.
JAQUET, JOHAN PAUL, Governor of Del., ii., 161.
JASPER, SERG. WILLIAM, iii., 469: killed, iv., 10.
JAY JOHN, minister to Spain, iv., 7 ; commissioner
in Paris, 76 : foreign secretary, 95: his treaty, 214.
JEFFERSON, THOMAS, on Mecklenburg Resolutions,
iii., 476; committee on declaration, 483; com
missioner to France, iv., 95 ; Secretary of State,
122 ; chosen Vice-president, 128 ; elected President,
144; his political creed, 164, 165 ; on necessity for
bloodshed, 226 : opposed to the Constitution, 226.
JEFFREY, MR., on " Stone-throwing," ii., 468.
JEFFREYS, HERBERT, of Va., ii., 316 ; iii., 52, 53.
JENINGS, EDWARD, of Va., iii., 71.
JENINGS, SAMUEL, iii., 40, 42.
JENKINS, JOHN, of N. C., ii., 288._
JENKINS, LIEUT., at Oiiatanon, iii., 322.
JERICHO. (See Hancock, Mass.).
JERSEY, ISLAND OF, Sir G. Carteret at, ii., 321.
JERSEY, EAST AND WEST, iii., 6, 9, 40.
JESUITS, in Maine, i., 323, 327 ; in Canada, ii., 500 et
seq.; in California, 583 et seq ; expelled, 597;
influence of, iii., 12,16, 122, 134 ; missions, 256.
JESUP, GEN. THOS. S., campaign against Seminoles,
iv.,353.
JESUP, MAJ., at Chippewa, iv., 211 ; at Hartford. 232.
JEWEL, BISHOP, on witchcraft, ii., 452.
JEWETT. W. CORNELL, iv., 512.
JOACHIMI, ALBERT, Ambassador in London, i., 441.
JOCOMES INDIANS, ii., 591, 593.
JOGUES, ISAAC, a Jesuit, ii., 233 et seq.
JOHN II., Columbus negotiates with, i., 186.
" JOHN," THE, lost at sea. ii., 211.
JOHNSON, ANDREW, provisional Governor of Tennes
see, iv., 532 : acting President, 599 ; disapproves
of Sherman's terms to Johnston, 599.
JOHNSON, BRADLEY, iv., 499.
JOHNSON, CAPT., killed, ii.. 413.
JOHNSON. EDWARD, at Sliauomet, ii., 79, note.
628
INDEX TO THE FOUR VOLUMES.
JOHNSON, KOKT, Charleston Harbor, iii., 85.
JOHNSON, Guv, Indian agent, iii., 438, 576.
JOHNSON, HERSCHEL V., iv., 433.
JOHNSON, SIR .IOHN, iii., 438.
JOHN.->ON, DR. JOSEPH, finds Mecklenburg Resolutions,
iii., 476, note.
JOHNSON, SIR NATHANIEL, of S. C., iii.. 82, 85.
JOHNSON, RICHARD M., in invasion of Canada, iv.,
190 ft Sfq.
JOHNSON, ROBERT, of S. C., iii., 97, 101, 106.
JOHNSON, SIR WILLIAM, iii.. 243, 252 ; Crown Point,
283 et se'i.; a baronet, 288 : Fort William Henry,
2d4 ; Fort Niagara, 302; restrains the Iroquois,
313; treaty witli Indians, 326 ; Brant, 608.
JOHNSON, WILLIAM V., iv., 423.
JOHNSTON, ALBERT SIDNEY, at Nashville, iv., 518;
killed, 523.
JOHNSTON, COL., iii., 616, note.
JOHNSTON, GABRIEL, of N. C, iii., 105, 375.
JOHNSTON, JOSEPH E., at Bull Run, iv., 451 ; in Pe
ninsular campaign, 471 ; in Vicksburg campaign,
557; supersedes Bragg, 579 ; opposes Sherman in
Atlanta campaign, 580 et seq.; superseded, 582;
takes command in Georgia, 596: surrenders, 590.
JOHNSTON, COL. PHILIP, killed, iii., 501.
JOLIET, DAVIS, \viih Marqnette, ii., 503 et si-q.
JONES, CAPT., of Georgia militia, iii., 168.
JONKS, JACOB, iv., 192.
JONES, JOHN PAUL, iii., 617 et seq
JONES, MARGARET, a witch, ii., 455.
JONES, REV. MORGAN, i., 70.
JONES, SEC. OF NAVY, orders Barney's flotilla and
the navy-yard burned, iv.,219, 220.
JONES, SIR WILLIAM, ii., 48(1.
JONES'S FORD, iii. 553.
JONQUIEKE, Governor of Canada, iii., 216.
JORDAN RIVER. (See. Combahee.)
JORIS, ADRIAEN, on New Netherland, i., 366.
JOSEPH THE JEW, i., 96.
JOUTEL, under La Salle, ii., 519 ft s,q
JUET, ROBERT, on Hudson's voyage, i., 347, 355.
JULIAN, GEORGE W . iv., 403.
JUMEL MANSION, THE, iii., 506, note.
JUMONVIU.E, slain, iii., 260.
JUNIU.S, iii ,364, note, 460, note.
I/ AGI, J. 11., Secretary of War in John Brown's
*v provisional government, iv., 429.
KAI.K, BARON DE, in the Southern campaign, iv., 34
fl .-"/. : death of, 36.
KANCAMAGUS, the Penacooks, ii., 443.
KANSAS, emigration to, iv., 408; the struggle for,
410 et sftj.; admitted to the Union, 432.
KANSAS-NEBRASKA BILL passed, 408.
KARLSEFNE, THORFINN, i., 46, 52
KASKASKIA, Illinois, ii., 547 ; iii., 257, 611.
KATTF.NBKRG (New Gottenburg), ii., 162.
KAUTZ, GEN. AUGUST V., at Petersburg, iv., 591.
KEARNY. PHILIP, in New Mexico, iv., 372 : in Pen
insular campaign, 471 : killed, 498.
" KEAKS\IH;E," Tin:, sinks the A/nha>nn, iv., 589.
KEELKR, FATHER, Jesuit, ii., 596.
KEKNE, GEN., wounded, iv., 235.
KEITH, GEORGE, on wearing the hat, ii., 171 : in Phil
adelphia, 4'.>7: iii., 176.
KEITH, SIR WILLIAM, of IVnn.. iii., 186, 188,257.
KEITT, LAWRENCE M., aids assault on Mr. Sunnier,
iv., 419.
KEMP. RICHARD, of Va. , ii., 200, 2(16.
KEMPTHORN, S., brings Quakers to Boston, ii., 178.
KEN;>ALI,, AMOS, iv., 298, 301 ; on rifling mails, 338.
KENDALL, GEORGE, of Va. Council,!., 270, 278.
KKNESAW MOUNTAIN, battle of, iv., 581.
KENNEUEC, RIVER, i., 309 ; tribes on, 310, 311 ; Cham-
plain enters, 314 ; lands 011,333,337: traders on,
ii.,9: Indians on, 438.
KENNEDY HOUSE, THE, iii., 495, note.
KENNETT SQUARE, iii., 553.
KENON, COLONEL, at Moore's Creek, iii., 465.
•' KENT," the ship, ii , 476, 477.
KENT ISLAND, trading-post at, i., 500; ii., 213.
KENTON, pioneer, iii., 610.
KENTUCKY, first visited, ii., 509 ; claims independ
ence, 97 ; emancipation proposed, iv., 391 : Bragg's
invasion, 530.
KEOKUK, chief, iv , 295.
KEPPEL, ADMIRAL, iii., 622.
IVERLEREC, CAPTAIN, of New Orleans, ii., 551, 552.
KERRY. (See Sorubiero.)
KETEI.TASS, ABRAHAM, iii., 232, note.
KEYES, GEN. K 1)., on the Peninsula, iv., 467 ft seq.
KEYSER, ADRIAN, of New Netherland, ii., 118.
KICKAPOO INDIANS, ii., 503.
KIDD, ROBERT, iii., 37, note.
KIDD, WILLIAM, iii , 33 el nrq.
KIEFT, WILLIAM, Governor of New Netherland, i.:
144: conduct toward the Indians, 451, 454, 455,
opposition to, 458, 402 : his recall, 463 ; treatment
of the Swedes, 467 : arrests Farrett and I low,
ii., 34,; Winthrop on, 58 : gives up to Stuyvesant,
lltj : accuses Kuvter and Melvn, 118; lost at sea,
120, 121.
KIEVIT'S HOECK, or Saybrook Point,, i.,440 ; ii., 34.
KILPATRICK, JUDSON, in march to the sea, iv., 5S5.
KING STREET. (See State Street.)
KING, PRESTON, iv., 422.
KING, RUFUS, candidate for President, iv.. 24»i.
KING, SAMUEL W.. iv., 367.
KING'S MOUNTAIN, battle of, iv., 38.
KING'S SCHOOI.HOUSE, battle of, iv., 479.
KING'S COLLEGE, N. Y., iii., 247, 611.
KING'S COUNTY, Long Island, ii., 327.
KING'S FRIENDS, THE, iii., 334 et seq. ; 364, 421
KING'S PROVINCE, THE, iii., 112.
KINGSTON. N. J., iii., 602.
KINGSTON, N. Y., iii., 588. (See /opus.)
KINGSTON, R. I. (See N. and S. Kingston.)
KINSEY, JOHN, iii., 187.
KINO, EUSEBIO FRANCISCO, in Cal., ii.,5S7 et seq.
KIP, HENDRICK HENDRICKSEN, ii., 123. note, 134.
KIP'S BAT, iii., 505.
KIRKE, COLONEL, of New England, ii., 387.
KITCHEN CABINET, THE, iv., 298.
KITCHEN-.MIDDINGS, in Denmark,!., 3; Prof. . I. Wy-
man on, 14, note.
KITTERY, N. II., ii., 420 : attack on. 441.
KJARLARNESS, point on Cape Cod, i.. 43.
KNOWLES, COMMODORE, in Boston, iii., 218.
KNOWLTON, LIEUT.-COL. THOMAS, iii., 397 : his raid
into Charlestown, 422, 507, 5'>9
KNOW-NOTHING PARTY, rise of, iv., 416; its Union
pledge, 417.
KNOX, COL. HENRY, at Boston, iii., 394, 409 : brings
cannon from Ticonderoga, 424 ; at N. Y., 462, 495 ;
cited, 536, note ; at Trenlon, 528.
KNOX. (JEN., incident related by, iv., 71 ; letter to
Washington quoted, 97, note.
KNOXVILLE, siege of, iv., 563.
KNYPHAUSEN, (JEN., iii., 518; at Fort Washington,
519; at Brandy wine, 554; at Monmouth, 603: at
New York, iv., 10: invades New Jersey, 15.
KOCH, DR., finds fossil mastodon, i., 10, 17.
KOHL, DR. J. II. ,011 Baccalaos, i.. 137, note ; on Flor
ida discovery, 147, note.
KOLNO, JOHN OP. (Sec Scolnus.)
KOSCIUSKO, at Ninety-six, iv., 61.
KRIECKEBEECK, killed by Indians, i., 367.
KUBLAI KHAN, Marco Polo's account of, i., 92.
KUYTER, JOACHIM, ii., 117 r.t xnj., 121, 122, 150.
KYLE, GOVERNOR, ii.,360.
I A BARIIK, M. DK, Governor of Canada, opposes
1 J La Salle, ii.. 516.
LA BAYE, on Green Bay, iii., 256.
LUIRADOR, discovered, i., 129; visited, 140.
LA CHERE, a French colonist, i.. 195, 196.
L\CHINE, La Sallc's trading-house, ii., 510.
LA COLLE MILL, attack on, iv., 210.
LACONIA GRANT, i., 333, 336.
Lu>i>, LUTHER ('., iv., 447, note.
LAET, JOHN DE, patroon, i.,433.
LAFAYETTE, pays claims against Barton, iii., 550,
note; joins Washington, 553: at Valley Forge,
593; his loyalty to Washington, 590; at Barren
Hill, 601 ; sent to Virginia, iv., 53 ; borrows money
to clothe his soldiers, 54 ; arrives at Williamsburg,
71 ; at Yorktown, 73.
LAFAYETTE, Ind., iii., 257.
LAFITTE, iv., 233.
LA HARPK, under Bienville, ii., 535, 538, 600.
LAKE CHAMPI.AIN discoverer!, i., 321 ; expeditions oil,
ii., 332, 334.
INDEX TO THE FOUR VOLUMES.
620
LAKE-DWELLERS in Switzerland, i., 4, 9.
LAKE ERIE, La Salle on, ii., 512: battle of, iv., 198
LAKE GEORGE, Hi., 281 tt seq.
LAKE MICHIGAN, explorations on, ii., 500.
LAKE NIPISSING. discovered, ii., 500.
LAKE ONTARIO, discovered, ii., 500.
LAKE PONTCHARTRAIN. ii., 532.
LAKE SUPERIOR, ii., 500.
LAMAR, MIRARKIU B., iv., 363.
LAMII, JOHN, iii., 456 et seq. ; at Yorktovvii, iv., 72.
LA.MUERT, GEN., at New Orleans, iv , 2.3(5.
LAMIIERTVILLK, iii., 602.
LA MONTAGNE, JOHANNES, of X. Y., ii., 118.
LAMI-O, JAN, sellout at Manhattan, i., 435.
LANCASTER, Mass., ii., 406 ; attacked, 414 ; iii., 123.
LANCASTER, IVun., iii., 545 ; Congress at, 557.
LAM) BANK, THE. iii., 201.
LANDAIS, CAPTMN, iii., 619-621.
LANDS AND TITLES, in Connecticut, ii., 26.
LANDS, tenure of in Ga., iii., 154.
LANI>S, tlie public, price of, iv., 311.
LAND TAX, proposed reduction of, iii., 352.
LANE THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY, iv., 334.
LANE, JOSEPH, iv.. 433.
LANE, RALPH, of Raleigh's colony, i., 246.
LANGDON, JOHN, his patriotism, iii., 580 ; in consti
tutional convention, iv., 1 >0.
LANNING, DAVID, iii., 529.
LANSING, opposes tho Constitution, iv., 103.
LARAMORE, CAPTAIN, ii., 307, 308.
LA ROCHE'S, MARO.UIS DE, patent, i., 312.
LAROCHE, JOHN, iii., 143, note.
LA Ko'jfBTTE, French colonist, i., 200.
LA SALLE, ROBERT CAVALIER DE, ii., 510 ; at Fort
Cnive-cu'ur, 511 ; on the Mississippi, 513 et seq.;
the Gulf. 5.15, 516; second expedition, 517; in
Texas, 518 ; murder of, 521.
LA SAUSSAYE, of French colony, i., 323, 325, 326.
LASHER, COL. JOHN, iii., 462.
LATHROP, CAPTAIN, killed, ii., 411.
LATIMEK, COL. JONATHAN, iii., 584.
LATOUCHE, JEREMIAH, iii., 232, note.
LA TOUR, at New Orleans, ii., 539.
LAUDONNIERE, RENE DE, commands French expedi
tion, i., 196. 198, 200. 208, 214.
LAUNAY, I)K, on the Mississippi, ii., 521.
LAURENS, HENRY, Pres. of Cong., iii., 596 : commis
sioner in Paris, iv., 76 ; prisoner in the Tower, 76,
note ; protects slave property, 77.
LAURENS, LIEUT.-COL. , iii., 561
LAURIE, GAWEN, in New Jersey, ii., 475 : of East Jer
sev, iii.. 6, 9.
LAURIE, iii., 389.
LAUSSAT, in transfer of Louisiana, iv., 149.
LAUZUN, DUKE DE, ordered to \Vestchester Co., iv., 66.
LAVERGXE, affair at, iv., 532.
LAW, JOHN, ii., 305, 528 et seq. : La. colonization, 531
ft seq. ; ruin of, 536 ; iii., 130.
LAWRENCE, Kansas, settled, iv., 408 ; sacked, 412.
LAWRENCE, Mass., iv., 245.
LAWRENCE, CHARLES, of N. S., iii., 275, note.
LAWRENCE, JAMES, killed, iv., 207.
LAWRENCE, RICHARD, in Va., ii , 305, 311, 315
LAWS, of Conn., ii., 24, 26, 27; of Mass., 61, 62 et
.s«/., 388; of N. II., 423.
LAWSON, KEV. DEODAT, at Salem, ii., 456.
LAWSON, JOHN, visits Carolina, ii., 272, 273 : mur
dered, iii., 92.
LAY, early abolitionist, iii., 177.
LAYDON, JOHN, Virginia colonist, i., 287.
LEAR, TOBIAS, treaty with Tripoli, iv., 161.
LEARNED, GEN., iii., 584.
LEATHER, manufacture of in Va., iii., 59.
LEAVENWORTH, COL., at Chippewa, iv., 211.
LE BLEEUW, appeal to \V. 1. Co., ii., 149.
LE BO:UF KORT, iii., 257 ; burned, 323.
LECHMERE'S POINT, iii., 383.
LEDDRA, WM., a Quaker, ii., 194,195.
LEDYARD, LIEUT -COL., killed at Ft. Griswold, iv.,69. I
LEE, ARTHUR, quoted, iii , 367.
LEE, CHARLES, iii., 8864 Major-general, 407; Xfiw- ,
port, 418 ; iron-clad oath, 418, note ; at N. Y., 429 ; '
letter to Committee of Safety, 460 ; Junius, 460,
note ; transferred to the South, 461 : at Charles
ton, 468; letter to Purviance, 482; insubordina
tion, 522; capture, 525; treachery , 550 ; court-mar-
tialled, 597 ; rebuked at Monmouth, 634 : iv., ;it
Eutaw Springs, 63.
LEE, COL., of 20th Mass, regiment, iv., 454.
LEE, FORT, iii., 491, 521.
LEE, MAJOR HENRY, iii., 617.
LEE, HENRY, lamed by a mob, iv., 187.
LEE, RICHARD HENRY, iii., 483 ; at battle of Guilford
Court House, iv., 46 ; his letter about Congress,
95, note : captures Fort Watson, 57.
LEE, MAJOR, at Springfield, iv., 15.
LEE, ROBERT E., in command at Harper's Ferry, iv.,
431 ; commands Virginia troops, 450 ; his estates,
473 ; takes command on the Peninsula, 477 ; his
Northern Virginia campaign, 494 et seq.; invades
Mary land, and is defeated at Antietam,499 et seq. ;
at Chaucellorsville, 546 ; invasion of Pennsyl
vania, 551 : opposes Grant in overland campaign,
573 et seq. ; defends Petersburg, 589 et seq. ; sur
renders, 598.
LEE, THOMAS, of Va., iii., 78 ; Ohio Company, 257.
LEE, WM., treaty drawn up by, iv., 76, note.
LE FEBOURE, CAPT., iii., 85.
LEFFERTS, COL., iv., 447.
LKFFINGWELL, MR., iii., 433.
LEICESTER, England, F'ox at, ii., 174.
LEIF'S voyage to America, i., 39, 40, 42.
LEISLER, JACOB, iii., 13 et seq.; tried, 22; executed,
24; re-buried^.
LEISLER, JOHN, Governor of N. Y., ii., 398.
LEISLER and anti-Leisler factions, iii., 37__-
LEITCH, MAJ. ANDREW, iii., 508, 509.
LEMOYNE, CHARLES (Longueuil), ii., 522.
LE MOYNE, FATHER, at Oiiondaga, ii., 234, note.
LE MOYNES, three, iii , 18.
LE MUYS, Governor of Louisiana, ii., 325.
LENNI LENAPE, THE, iii., 258.
LENOIR, THOMAS, reward for cotton card, iv., 108.
LEON, CAPTAIN ALONZO DE, in Texas, ii., 598.
LEON, GEN., killed, iv., 381.
LEPE, DIEGO DE, in South America, i., 123.
L'EPINAY, M. DE, of Louisiana, ii.,525.
LERI, BARON DE, at Sable Island, i., 175.
LESLIE, GEN., goes South with reinforcements, iv.,
39 ; ordered to Camden. 40.
LESLIE, COL., at Salem, iii. ,378 ; at Dorchester Neck,
424 ; at N. Y.,493, 514.
LE S(EUR an explorer of Lake Superior, ii., 524
LESSING, iii., 454.
LESTER, LIEUT., iii., 322.
LETCHER, ROBERT P., iv., 310.
LEVERETT, CAPTAIN, ii., 148.
LEVERETT, JOHN, of Massachusetts, ii.. 406.
LBVETT, CHRISTOPHER, i., 334 : house at York, 335.
LEVIS, DE, at Fort William Henry, iii. ,293; at Ti-
conderoga, 298; at Quebec, 306 et seq.
LEWES, Delaware, ii., 248; iv., 205.
LEWGER, JOHN, of Maryland, i., 506.
LEWIS, MAJOR, iii., 592
LEWIS, JOHN, iii., 74.
LEWIS, COL. MORGAN, iii., 571.
LEWIS, WM. B., iv., 298.
LEWIS and CLARKE, their expedition, iv., 170.
LEWISTON, destroyed, iv., 202.
LEXINGTON, Mass., battle of, iii., 386-388.
LEXINGTON, Mo., sii-ge of, iv., 457.
LEY, LORD, at Boston, ii., 41, note.
" LIBERATOR," THE, iv., 316 et seq.
" LIBERTY,'' THE, Hancock's sloop, iii. ,357.
LIBERTY-POLE festival in N. Y., iii., 350.
LICENSE OF SPEECH, laws against, ii., 65.
LIGONIER, Penn., iii., 3< 0 ; attacked, 323.
LIGUERIS, DE, at Braddock's tight, iii. ,267.
LILLINGTON, COLONEL, iii., 465.
LINARES, DUKE OF, viceroy of Mexico, ii., 599.
LINCOLN, ABRAHAM, his " spot resolutions," iv., 370 ;
elected President, 434 ; arrival at Washington, 445 ;
controversy with Gen. McClellan. 470, 474, 489,
505 ; preliminary proclamation of emancipation,
5H4: movement against his cabinet, 511: final
proclamation of emancipation, 543; reelected,587 ;
assassinated, 599.
LINCOLN, GEN. BENJAMIN, iii., 575: in S. ('., 613 et
set/.; his attack on Savannah, iv., 9 : joins Wash
ington at N. Y., 66: receives surrender of Corn-
wallis's army, 74.
LINDESAY, JOHN, in Cherry Valley, iii., 243.
630
INDEX TO THE FOUR VOLUMES.
LINGAN, GEN., killed, iv., 187.
LINSCHOTEN, Dutch geographer, i., 343, 344.
LINSINGEN, COLONEL, at X. V., iii., 493.
LINZEE, CAPT., of the Lively, iii., 399.
LIOTOT, with La Salle, ii., 519 et seq.
LIQUORS, prohibited in Ga., iii., 153.
LISLE, LIEUT-COL., turns over his loyalists, iv , 3'2.
" LITTLE BELT,'' affair of the, iv., 182
LITTLE, COLONEL, iii., 498.
LITTLE EGG HARBOR, X. .)., ii.. 475.
LITTLK HARBOR, X. II., attacked, ii., 449.
LITTLE MEADOWS, iii., 265.
LITTLETON, Mass., witchcraft at, ii., 470.
LIVINGSTON, EDWARD, of X Y., iii. ,37, 38.
LIVINGSTON, COL. HENRY, iii., 584
LIVINGSTON, JAMES, tires on the Vulture, iv., 22
LIVINGSTON, PHILIP, Iii., 502.
LIVINGSTON, ROBERT, ii., 398 ; iii., 413.
LIVINGSTON, COL. ROBERT, iii., 33, 35.
LIVINGSTON, R. R., of committee to draft declaration,
iii., 483 : negotiates purchase of Louisiana, iv.,, 147.
LLOYD, DAVID, iii., 180, 182, 183.
LLOYD, DR. THOMAS, on the Welsh, i., 70.
LLOYD, THOMAS, of Penn., ii., 498.
LOCKE, JOHN, " Constitutions " of, ii., 276 et set/
LOCKWOOD, JAMES, his letter, iii., 393.
LODGE, lawyer, iii., 230, note.
LOGAN, pioneer, iii., 610.
LOGAN, JAMES, IVnn's secretary, ii , 490: iii., 178;
quoted, 181, 182.
LOGAN'S FORT, iii., 610.
LOG-CABIN CAMPAIGN, iv., 357.
LOGSTOWN, council with Indians at, iii., 258.
LONDON Co., patent granted to, i., 267 ; colony of.
268, 270, 300.
LONDONDERRY, X. II., iii., 139.
LONG, COLONEL, 573.
LONG ISLAND, claimed by Stirling, ii., 34 ; towns of,
divided, 137 : called Yorkshire, 260 ; in 17th cen
tury, iii., 2 ; towns on, 9, 26 ; battle of, 497 et seq.
LONG ISLAND SOUND, Adriaen Block in, i., 359.
LONG PARLIAMENT. (See Parliament.)
LONGSTREET, GEN. JAS., in Peninsular campaign, iv.,
475 et st(/. ; at Second Bull Run, 497 ; in Gettysburg
campaign, 551 et st-q. ; at Chickamauga, 561 ; be
sieges Knoxville, 563 : in overland campaign, 572.
LONGUEUIL, BARON DE. (See Lemoyne.)
LOOCKERMANS, (.{OVERT, ii., 123, note, 134.
LOOK, THOMAS, of Nantucket, iii., 2, note.
LOOKOUT MOUNTAIN, iv., 565.
LOOMIS, SAILING-MASTER, iv., 249.
LOPEZ, FATHER, killed by Indians, ii.,580.
LORD, DR., iv., 398.
LOSSBERG, COLONEL, at X. Y., iii., 493.
LOUAILLIER, MR., imprisoned, iv., 237.
LOUDOUN, FORT, iii., 295.
LOUDOUN, LORD, iii., 289 ; Louisburg, 291.
LOUGHBOROUGH, LORD, iii., 369.
Louis XIV., alliance with Dutch, ii., 331 : letter to
b'rontenac, 510 : Louisiana named for, 515.
Louis XV., ii., 549, 550.
LOUISBURG, expedition against, iii., 208 etser/. : X. Y.
contribution, 251 ; Loudoun's expedition, 291 ;
captured, 20<.
LOUISIANA, named, ii., 515; settled, 517 ; granted to
Cro/.at, 525, 598 ; ceded to England, 563 ; purchase
of, iv., 145 et seq. ; boundaries, 146, 202.
" LOUISIANA,'' iron-clad, at Xew Orleans, iv., 526.
LOVEJOY, ELIJAH P., murdered, iv., 331.
LOVEJOY, OWEN, quoted, iv., 428.
LOVELACE, FRANCIS, purchases in Staten Island, ii.,
327; Xew York, 336 ; orders burning of votes, 345 ;
arrested, 350.
LOVELACE, LORD, of X. Y., iii., 43.
LOVELL, GENERAL, on the Penobscot, iii., 617.
LOVELL, GEN. M., at New Orleans, iv., 529.
LOVELL, Miss, iii., 4<>2, note.
LOVEWELL'S, CAPT. JOHN, expedition, iii., 194.
LOVEWELL'S VOLUNTEERS, iii., 124, note.
LOWELL, Mass., iv., 245, 315.
LOWESTOPT, naval battle of, ii., 330.
LOWTHER, AGNES, wife of Clay borne, 11. ,213.
LOWTHF.R, SIR RICHARD, ii., 2i3.
LOYALHANNA, iii., 300.
LUCAS, XICHOLAS, interest in X. .)., ii., 475.
LUCE, ENSIGN, iv., 112.
LCD, WALTER, on Vespucci voyages, i., 124.
LUDLOW, ROGER, of Dorchester,!., 531, 532: ii., 22
note, 147.
LUDWELL, COL. PHILIP, of S. C., ii., 366, 367 ; suit,
iii., 52, 53, 58.
Luis, leader of an insurrection, ii., 596.
LUKEN'S MILL, iii., 558.
LUNA, TRISTAN DE, expedition to Florida, i., 171, 173.
LUNDEORD, SIR THOMAS, ii., 208.
LCNDY'S LANE, battle of. iv., 212.
LUNT, GEORGE, iv., 341.
LUTHERANS, in Xew Amsterdam, ii., 237 et seq.
LUTWIDGE, CAPT., iii., 568 et seq.
LYFORD, JOHN, at Plymouth, i., 413, 414: at Xan-
tasket, 419.
LYMAN, FORT, iii., 283.
LYMAN, GENERAL, at Crown Point, iii.. 283.
LYNCH, THOMAS, iii., 419.
LYNN, Mass., settled, i., 532 ; emigration from, ii.,34.
LYNNHAVEN BAY, Va., witchcraft, ii., 470.
LYON, NATHANIEL, career in Missouri, iv., 454 et serf.
AIcALLISTER, FORT, iv., 586.
•"•* McARTHUR, MAJOR, turns over his men to the
American cause, iv., 32.
MCCALL, GEN., iv.. 478, 479.
MCCLELLAN, GEN. GKORGE B., commands in Western
Virginia, iv., 451 : assigned to Dcp't of Potomac,
454; his Peninsular campaign, 467 ttstq.; letter
to Secretary of War, 4b2 ; forms a party, 498 ;
tights battle of Antietam, 501 et seq. ; removed,
507 : nominated for President, 587.
MCCLENACHAN, B., iv., 122
McCLERNAND, GEN. JOHN A., at Vicksburg, iv., 540.
McCoMB, GEN., treats with Seuiinoles, iv., 354.
MCCONKEY'S FERRY, iii., 532.
McCooK, GEN. A. M., at Nashville, iv., 533.
MC('REA, JANE, the story of, iii., 569-571.
McCuLi.ocH, BEN., in Missouri, iv.. 455.
McCuLLOH, HUGH, on stamp duty, iii., 333.
MACDONALD, CAPT., at battle of Xewtown, iv., 4.
MCDONALD, COL. DONALD, iii., 465.
MCDONALD, FLORA, iii., 465.
MCDONALD. SERGEANT, at Savannah, iv., 10.
MACDONOUGH, THOS., battle of I'lattsburg, iv., 214.
McDouGAL, GEN., sent with a memorial, iv., 86.
McDouGAL, LIEUTENANT, iii., 317.
MCDOUGALL, GENERAL, iii., 495 ; at Peekskill, 547 ; at
Germantown, 559.
MCDOWELL, GEN. IRVIN, commands army of the Po
tomac, iv.,451 : in Peninsular campaign, 467.
MCDUFFIE, Gov., on slavery, iv., 323.
MACE, SAMUEL, at Raleigh, i., 2?>6.
" MACEDONIAN," captured, iv., 193 ; blockaded, 207.
MCEVERS, JOHN, iii., 232, note.
McFARLANE, iv., 120.
MCGOWAN'S FORD, fight at, iv., 45.
MCGREGOR, GREGOR, iv., 251.
MACGREGOR, THE REV. MR., in N. II.. iii., 139.
McllENRY, FORT, bombarded, iv., 222.
MACHIAS, captured, iv., 216.
MclNiosH, LIEUT. -COL., in Mexio, iv., 381.
MCKAY, LIEUTENANT, iii., 162.
MCKEAN, THOMAS, iii., 484, note.
McKEE, WM. R., killed, iv., 375.
McKE.xziE, CAPT , in Mexico, iv..384.
MCKENZIE, THE REV. MR., iii., 39.
MACKINAC, STRAITS AND ISLAND OF, ii., 500, 509, 510.
MCKINSTRY, GEN., iv., 458.
MCLANE, CAPTAIN, iii. ,559.
McL.\NE, Louis, Minister at London, iv., 304 : sug
gests compromise, 266.
McLAWS. GEN., in Antietam campaign, iv., 500: at
Chancellorsville, 549.
MACLEAN, COLONEL, at Quebec, iii., 445.
MCLEAN, JOHN, iv., 422.
McLEOD, case of, iv., 355.
McLEOD, COLONEL, iii., 465.
MACOMB, ALEX., commands at I'lattsburg, iv., 214.
McN'EAL, MRS., with Jane McCrca, iii., 5.
MACON, FORT, captured, iv., 463.
MACON, SENATOR, quoted, iv., 267.
M'PiiERsoN, CAPTAIN, iii., 146, 147
McI'HERSON, GEN. JAMES B., in Atlanta campaign,
iv., 579 et *>•(/. : killed, 5«3.
MACY, THOMAS, of Xantucket. iii., 2.
[NDEX TO THE FOUR VOLUMES.
631
MADISON, JAMES, in constitutional convention, iv.,
101 ; elected President, 179 ; at Bladensburg, 219.
MADISON, COL., at battle of Frenehtown, iv., 194.
MADOC, tradition concerning, i., 66.
MADOCKAWANEO, sachem, ii., 441, 442.
MAGAW, COL. ROBERT, iii., 516.
MAGELLAN, voyage of, i., 151, 175.
MAGNUS, a squaw sachem, ii., 417.
MAGRUDER, J. 15., at Big Bethel, iv., 450; defends
Yorktown, 468.
MAGUAOA, battle of, iv.,188.
MAHAM, MAJOR, his device at Fort Watson, iv., 57.
MAUAM TOWERS, iv., 60, 61.
MAIDEN LANE (New York), ii., 342.
MAIDENHEAD, X. .1., iii., 532.
MAINE, i., 308; colonizing, 309, 336 ; known as Xo-
rumbega, 310 ; aborigines of, 3LO ; claimed by
French, 312-322; visited by Champlain, 314; ex
peditions to, 321 ; Indian war in, iii., 123 ft seq. ;
attempts at settlement in, 139; first settlement,
197, note : Clay on admission of, iv., 267.
MAITLAND, LIEUT.-COL., at Savannah, iv., 9.
MAJORIBANKS, MAJOR, at Kutaw Springs, iv., 64.
MALAYS, supposed migration of, i., 36.
MALDEN, burned, iv.,199.
MALTRAVERS, LORD, patent of Carolina, ii., 270.
MALVERN HILL, battle of, iv., 486.
MAMARONECK, iii., 617.
MAMARONECK CREEK, X. Y., ii., 325, 326.
MAMBHE, FATHER, with La Salle, ii.,516.
MAN, antiquity of, in Europe, i., 1,4 et seq.; in
America, 11.
" MANASSAS," ram. destroyed, iv., 528.
MANCIIAC, FORT, captured, iv., 7.
MANCHESTER (Xiagara Falls), destroyed, iv., 202.
MANCHESTER, X. II., iv., 245.
MANCHESTER, X. Y., iv., 427.
MANCHESTER, Vt., iii., 581.
MANCHONACK. (See Gardiner's Island.)
MANDAN INDIANS, resemblance to \Velsh, i., 72, 73;
Catlin on, 73, note, and 74.
MANDEVILLE, SIR JOHN, the east, i., 114.
MANHATTAN ISLAND, i., 352, 356, 358; Fort Amster
dam on, 367 ; population of, in 1628, 368.
MANLY, of the Lee, iii., 418.
MANNING, JOHN, of N. Y., ii., 347 ; surrenders, 348.
MANSFIELD, GEN. ,1. K.F., receives Banks's corps, iv.,
499; killed, 502.
MANSFIELD, LORD, iii., 348.
MANTEO, an Indian carried to England, i., 245 ; with
Raleigh's colony, 252.
MANUFACTURES, development of, iv., 314.
MARBLF.HEAD, Leslie lands at, iii., 379.
MARBOIS, negotiates sale of Louisiana, iv., 147.
MARCOLIXA, i'., publishes Zeni letters, i., 76.
MARCO POLO, account of India, i., 93.
MARCY, \\"M L., on anti-slavery societies, iv., 328.
MARGKAVATE OF AZILIA, THE, iii., 141 et seq.
" MARIGOLD," THE, of Drake's fleet, ii., 570.
MARION, FRANCIS, Lee's description of his campaign
ing, iv., 33, note.
MARKHAM, COL., of Pa., ii., 498.
MARLIIOROUGH, Ik KE OF, iii., 46.
MARO.UETTE, expeditions of, ii., 503, 505 et seq.
MARSHALL, CAPT., killed, ii.,413.
MARSHALL, JOHN, commissioner to France, iv., 132 ;
presides at Burr's trial, 153 ; decision in Cherokee
case, 289.
MARSHFIELD, Mass., troops sent to, iii., 378.
MARSTON MOOR, battle of, ii., 203.
MARTHA'S VINEYARD, named, i., 265 ; visited by Der-
mer, 331 ; by May 360 ; ii., 260 ; iii., 2, 10, 28.
MARTIN, of X. C., iii., 464, 475.
MARTIN, ALONZO, on the Pacific, i., 146.
MARTIN, ANDREAS, carries Columbus prisoner to I
Spain,!., 120.
MARYE'S HILL, iv., 508.
MARYLAND, grant of to Lord Baltimore, i., 487, 488,
492, 493, 497; revolution in, 511, 512; ii., 211,
214 et seq. ; boundaries, 249 et seq., 495 et seq. ;
iii., 60, 61, 63 ; Proprietary government over
thrown, 63 ; schools, 67 ; government restored, 78,
79 ; declares for independence, 482 ; adopts con
stitution, 487 ; Lee's invasion of, iii., 499 et seq.
MASCOUTIN INDIANS, ii., 503.
MASON, in constitutional convention, iv., 102.
MASON AND DIXON'S LINE, iv., 406.
MASON, MR., iii., 115.
MASON, CAI>T. JOHN, Governor in Newfoundland, i.,
331 ; Laconia Grant, 333 ; divides with Gorges, 336.
MASON, COL., a Va. officer, iii., 294.
MASON, JAMES M., author of Fugitive-slave Bill, iv.,
396 ; approves assault on Mr. Sumner, 420 ; takeu
from the Trent, 459.
MASON, JONATHAN, iv., 300.
MASON, JOHN, ii., 9, 11, 12 et seq. ; his N. II. grant,
420 et seq. ; his death, 427.
MASON, ROBERT, claim to X. II., ii., 428, 431, 432.
MASON, TUFTON, ii., 435, note.
MASON CLAIM, ii., 126.
MASHAM, MRS., iii., 45.
MASSACHUSETTS, Pequot war, ii., 9. ; hostility toll.
1., 48 et seq.: joins confederation, 49 ; its official
oath, 50; Gorton, 71 et seq.; Quakers in, 177 et
seq.; its charter, 375 et seq.; Philip's war, 401 et
seq. ; witchcraft in, 450 et seq. ; a royal province,
iii., 109; her condition in 1715,127; letter on
taxation, 336 ; address to the King, 33s ; letter on
taxation without representation, 353 ; Govern
ment Bill, the, 375 ; declares for independence,
478 ; adopts Constitution, 487, 489.
MASSACHUSETTS BAY COMPANY, established, i., 518 ;
control of, transferred to America, 524, 525.
MASSACHUSETTS INDIANS, hostility of, i.,407.
MASSACRES, from Jesuit intrigues, iii., 16.
MASSASOIT, treaty with Plymouth colony, i., 402 ;
restored to health, 408 ; sachem, ii., 404.
MASTODON, found in America, i., 16, 11.
MATAUORDA BAY, ii., 517,521 ; captured by De Leon,
598 ; settlement in, 601.
MATANZAS INLET, French colony at, i., 190 ; massa
cre at, 212, 214.
MATANZAS PASSAGE, St. Augustine, ii., 561.
MATHER, COTTON, on witchcraft, ii., 456 et seq., 464;
Dudley's cause, iii., 120, 121 ; mobbed for inocu
lation, 128 ; sermon, 135.
MATHER, INCREASE, Harvard College, ii.. 395 i cited,
404 : opposes the witchcraft delusion, 459 ; in Eng
land, iii., 25 ; favors inoculation, 128.
MATHEWS, CAPTAIN, Va. agent, ii., 221 ; Governor,
222 ; death, 222, 223.
MATHEWS, GEN., seizes Amelia Island, iv., 248.
MATHEWS, JACOB, iii., 166.
MATOWACK, Long Island, ii., 124.
MATSON'S FORD, iii., 601.
MATTAPANY, F'ORT, besieged, iii., 63.
MATTHEWS, CAPTAIN SAMUEL, in Maryland, i., 503, 504.
MATTHEWS, GEN., iii., 493 ; in Va., 614.
MAUDUIT, JASPER, iii., 335, note, 336.
MAVERICK, commissioner, iii., 119; 363, note.
MAVERICK, REV. JOHN, of Dorchester, i., 522, 531.
MAVERICK, SAMUEL, at Xoddle's Island, i., 423.
MAVERICK, SAMUEL, ii., 257, 260.
MAVILLA, Indian Village near Mobile, i., 162.
MAWHOOD, at X. Y., iii., 493 : at Princeton, 534.
MAXWELL, COLONEL, iii., 450, 602.
MAXWELL, GEN., iii., 544, 553, 559.
MAXWELL, WILLIAM, service in Xew Jersey, iv., 15.
MAY, CAPTAIN, iv., 370.
MAY, CORNELIS JACOBSEN, i., 359; Cape May named
for him, 360 ; takes the Walloons to America, 366 ;
Governor of New Xetherland, 367.
MAY, River of, in Florida, 191.
" MAYFLOWER," i , 385 et seq.-; at Salem in 1629, 520.
MAYHEW, REV. THOMAS, ii., 19, 378, 437.
MAYHEW, THOMAS, Xantucket, iii., 2.
MAYNARD, LIEUTENANT, iii., 99.
MAZE, pirate, iii , 34.
MEAD, WILLIAM, tried, ii., 484, 485.
MEADE, GEN. GEORGE G., at Chancellorsville, iv., 546 ;
assumes command of Army of the Potomac, and
fights battle of Gettysburg, 552 ; Grant's testimony
as to, 570 ; in overland campaign, 570 et seq.
MEAGIIER, GEN., at Cold Harbor, iv., 482.
MECHANICSVILLE, battle of, iv., 480.
MECKLENBURG RESOLUTIONS, THE, iii., 474.
MEDARY, SAMUEL, Governor of Kansas, iv., 414.
MEDFORD, Mass., settled, i., 532.
MEDICI, LORENZO DE, letter from Vespucci, i., 124.
MEDITERRANEAN SEA, in early period, i., 10.
MEGAPOLENSIS, DOMINIE, ii., 158, i.65.
MEIGS, FORT, siege of, iv., 194.
632
INDEX TO THE FOUR VOLUMES.
MEIGS, HENRY AND CHARLES, cited, iv., 14!) note.
MEIGS, RETURN J ., iii., 444 note ; at Sag Harbor, 548 :
at Stony Point, 615.
MELLON, FORT, attacked, iv., 353.
MELOY'S horse to be returned, iii., 393.
MELYN,CORNELIS, ii., 117 et seq. ; in the Princess, 121 ;
sentence reversed, 122; returns to N. Y., 131, 135.
MEMPHIS, captured by Davis, iv., 520.
MENDON RESOLUTIONS, THE, iii., 472.
MENDOZO, of New Spain, ii., 666, 569.
MENENDEZ, PEDRO, expedition of against the French,
i., 205, 207, 208 ; builds St. Augustine, 213 ; his
death, 220 ; of St. Augustine, ii., 556; on negro
slaves, 558
MENOTOMY, iii., 383.
MERCENARIES, iii., 423, 452-454, 455.
MERCER, COLONEL, at Oswego, iii. , 283, 290.
MERCER, FORT, iii., 562, et seq.
MERCER, GEN. HUGH, iii., 267; commands militia,
495 ; at Trenton, 529.
MERCIER, COUNT, Minister at Washington, iv., 512.
MERIDIAN EXPEDITION, Sherman's, iv., 566.
MERMAID TAVERN, ii., 177.
MERRIMACK RIVER, ii., 435, 436, note.
MERRITT, ,)OHN, iii., 232, note.
MERRY MOUNT. (See Wollaston, Mt.)
MESNARD, FATHER, founds missions, ii., 501.
METACOMET. (See Philip.)
METUCUEN, N. J., iii., 551.
METUCHEN HILL, iii., 559, 562.
MEW, RICHARD, of East Jersey, iii., 6, note.
MEXICO, mounds in, i., 26, 32"; war with, iv., 369.
MEXICO, CITY OF, occupied by U. S. forces, iv., 385.
MIAMI, FORT, captured, iii., 256, 321.
MIAMI INDIANS, ii., 503, 548.
MIAXTONOMO, against the Pequots, ii., 9,16 ; grant to
Williams, 39 ; sells R. 1., 43 : sells lands to Gorton,
77 ; feud with Uncas; 92, et seq. ; iii., 115.
MICANOPY, abandoned, iv.. 353.
MlCHAELlus, JONAS, first minister in New Xetherland,
i., 442.
MICHIGAN, first visited, ii.. 500.
MICHILIMACKINAC, iii., 256 : surrendered, 311; cap
tured by Indians, 322 ; attack on, iv., 210.
MICMACS, an Indian tribe of Maine, i., 310.
MlDDLEBORoUGH, ii., 405 ; Indians, 406.
MIDDLEUROOK, N. J., iii., 550.
MIDPLEHURGH. (See Newtown.)
MIDDLE PLANTATION, Va., ii., 306 ; iii., 70.
MIDDI.ETON, ARTHUR, of S. ('., iii., 104.
MlDWOUT (FLATBUSU). L. I., ii., 145.
MIFFLIN, FORT, iii., 562 ; reduced, 664.
MIFFLIN, GEN., iii., 495. 596.
MIFFLIN, Gov., in Whiskey Insurrection, iv.; 121.
MIFFLIN, WARNER, petitions against slavery, iv., 109.
MILHORNE, marches to Albauy, iii., 17; tried, 22;
executed, 24 : reburied, 32.
MILES, COL., iii'., 501.
MILES, COL., surrenders Harper's Ferry, iv., 500.
MILES, GEN., at Bull Run, 451.
MILFORD, Conn., ii., 31 ; emigrants, 323
MILITIA, Washington's opinion of, iii., 522.
MILITIAMEN, six executed, iv., 236.
MILLER, ('APT , in battle of Hladensburg, iv , 219.
MILLER, JAMES, at Maguaga, iv., 188 ; at Lundy's
Lane, 213.
MILLER, THOMAS, of N. C., ii., 284, 285 et set/.
MILLS, COL , killed, iv., 197.
MILLSTONE CREEK, iii., 546
MILNER, JAMES, a Ranter, ii., 175.
MII.ROY, GEN. ROBERT II., at Winchester, iv.. 651.
MILTON, JOHN, ii., 210.
MIMMS, FORT, masMicru at, iv., 203.
MIXAS, BASIN OF, iii., 272.
MINE RUN, affair at, iv., 560.
" MINERVA," the privateer, iv., 68.
MINGEKODE, COL., iii., 493; killed, 563.
MINING in the Stone Age, i., 29.
MINGO INDIANS, ii., 493.
MINON, GEN., at Buena Vista, iv., 374.
MINOT HOUSE. Boston, ii., 55, note 3.
MiMiUA INDIANS, ii., 160.
MINUIT, PETER, Governor at Manhattan, i., 367 ; re
called, 435 ; in Swedish service, 466 ; death, 469.
MIRACLES (Negro Plot), iii., 242.
MIRANDA, his schemes, iv., 140.
MIRBACH, GENERAL, iii., 493.
MIREPOIX, quoted, iii. ,262.
MIRO, his plot, iv., 137, 138.
MIRUELO, DIRGO, in Florida, i., 148.
MISSIONARY RIDGE, iv., 665.
MISSISSIPPI RIVER, supposed discovery by Garay, i.,
149; discovered by l»e Soto, 164 ; first known, ii.,
501 ; Marquette, 5o3_ ; La Salle, 513 ; St. Louis, 525 ;
proposed route to, iii., 247 ; control of, 256 : west
ern boundary of the U. S., 611 : commercial im
portance, iv., 137.
" MISSISSIPPI SCHEME," Tii£,ii., 532 tt set]. ; iii., 130.
MISSOURI, first visited, ii., 509 ; applies for admis
sion to the Union, iv., 2(i2 ; bill to admit, 265 ; the
compromise, 268 el seq : admitted, 272 : outbreak of
civil war in, 454 ; the struggle renewed in, 541.
MISSOURI COMPROMISE, iv., 2bb et sty. ; repealed, 407.
MISSOURI INDIANS, ii., 601.
MISSOURI RIVER, names of, ii.. 506, 525.
MITCHELL, ORMSISY M., his expedition, iv., 525.
MITCHELSON, MARGARET, ii., 172, note.
MITCHIGAMEA, at Marquette, ii., 508.
MIXAN, a sachem, ii., 91, 141.
MOBILE, taken by Galvex, iv., 7 : taken by Wilkinson,
202; attacked by British, 233; Farragut's victory
on the bay, 589.
MOBILE BAY", Ibcrville's post in, ii., 523.
MOUILE RIVER, settlement on, ii., 523.
MOBS, pro-slavery, iv., 329 et seq.
MOGG, or MUGG, a sachem, ii., 441.
MOHAWK INDIANS, ii., 16, 331 ft seq., 4:55 : iii.. 25.
MOHAWK RIVER, raid on the, iii., 29.
MOHICANS, i., 440 : ii., 9, 92 et se</., 412.
MOLINO DEL REY, battle of, iv., 380.
MOMAUGUIN, a Connecticut sachem, ii., 2S.
MONCKTON, LIEUT. -COL., in Acadia, iii., 27ti : Briga
dier-general, 304 ; at N. Y., 493; killed, 605.
MONEY in Europe for the American cause, iii., 422.
MONGOL migration to America, i., 3(5.
MOMIEGAN, Island of, i., 315; visited by Dernier,
331 ; purchased by Englishmen, 335.
" MONITOR " and " MERRIMAC,'' battle of, iv., 464.
MONK, GEORGE, DUKE OF ALBEMARLE, ii., 223: a pat
entee of Carolina, 269, 281.
MONK'S CORNER, skirmish at, iv., 13.
MONMOUTH COURT-HOUSE, iii., 202 et seq.
MONROE, COLONEL, at Fort William Henry, iii., 2H2.
MONROE, JAMES, at Trenton, iv., 29 ; sent to France,
146; guards slaveholders' interests, 241; elected
President, 246; the dispute between him and Jack
son, 257 ; encounter with Crawford, 27S, note : hig
" Doctrine," 279, 285
MONROE, Mich. (See Frenchtown.)
MONTAGU, LADY MARY WORTLEY, iii., 128.
MONTAUK POINT, ii., 35 ; iii., 115.
MONTCALM, Louis JOSEPH, MARQUIS DE, in Canada,
iii., 289 : at Oswego, 290; besieges Kort William
Henry, 293, 294 ; at Ticonderoga, 298 ; defeats
Abercrombie, 299 ; at Quebec, 304 et stq.
MONTEANO, of St. Augustine, ii., 562.
MONTEREY captured, iv., 371.
MONTEREY, COUNT OF, of Mexico, ii , 583.
MONTGOMERIE, JOHN, of N. Y.. iii., 50.
MONTGOMERY, Ala., iv., 440.
MONTGOMERY, Penn., iii., 600.
MONTGOMERY, pioneer, iii., 610.
MONTGOMERY, FORT, captured, iii., 588.
MONTGOMERY, MAJOR, killed, iv., 69.
MONTGOMERY, MR., iv., 426.
MONTGOMERY. RICHARD, iii., 407; expedition against
Canada, 439 et set;. : his death, 446.
MONTGOMERY, SIR ROBERT, iii. ,140.
MONTICELLO, iv , 55, note
MONTIANO, DON MANUEL DE, of Florida, iii., 158.
MONTMORENCI, F.u.i.s OF, iii., 805.
MONTREAL, ii., 501 : surrendered, iii., 311 ; attacked
by Allen, 440; captured by Montgomery, 441.
MONTRESSOR, ('APT. JOHN, iii , 493.
MONTRESSOR, COLONEL, iii., 441, 443.
MOOANAM. (See Alexander.)
MOODY, LADY, her home attacked, ii.. 232.
MOODY, RKV. MR., at Portsmouth, ii., 424, 430.
MOODY, PARSON, at Louisburg, iii., 211, 215.
MOOR, ROBERT, iii., 143, note
MOORE, GOVERNOR, of S ('., iii., SI.
MOORE, SIR HENRY, N. Y., iii., 352
INDEX TO THE FOUR VOLUMES.
633
MOORE, JAMES, of Carolina, ii., 559.
MOORE, COL. JAMES, of N. ('., iii., 93 ; iu S. 0., 101.
MOORE, GEN. JAMES, iii., 465, 466.
MOORE, DR. JOHN, quoted, iii., 4.
MOORE, JOHN W., iv., 527.
MOORE, MRS., iii., 610.
MOORE, COL. SAMUEL, of X. II., iii., 210.
MOORE, \VILLIAM, iii., 36, 87.
MOORE'S CREEK BRIDGE, iii., 465.
.MOORSON, cited, iii., 560, note.
MOOSA, Spanish post, ii., 561, 562.
MOOSIIAUSICK. (See Providence.)
MoosHAUSH'K RIVER, ii., 39.
MORALES, iiitendant at Orleans, iv., 140, 146.
MORANGET, nephew of La Salle, ii., 520.
MORAVIAN TOWN, iv., 200.
MORE, I)R., on witchcraft, ii., 452.
MORETON, JOSEPH, of S. 0., ii., 358 et seq.
MORETON'S POINT, iii. ,400.
MORGAN, COL. DANIEL, iii., 267; at Boston, 415; at
Quebec, 447 ; at Edge Hill, 564, 575 ; his rifle
corps, 534 ; at Valley Forge, 593; in campaign un
der Greene, 40 e t seq. ; his letter to Greene, 46.
MORGAN, GEN. G. W., at Cumberland Gap, iv., 533.
MORGAN, Rebel General, iv., 533.
MORGAN, WILLIAM, murdered, iv.,303.
MORMONS, THE, iv., 427, 428.
MOROCCO, treaty with, iv., 154.
MORRIS, CAPTAIN, at Charleston, iii., 469.
MORRIS, COLONEL, iv.,532.
MORRIS, GOUVERXEUR, iii., 458 : iv., 227.
MORRIS, JSAAC, iii., 180.
MORRIS, LEWIS, a popular leader, iii. ,40 ; of N.J.,248.
MORRIS, MAJOR, iii., 584, note.
MORRIS, RICHARD, iii., 40.
MORRIS, ROBERT, raises money, iii. ,531; Washing
ton writes to, 67.
MORRIS, COL. ROGER, iii., 506.
MoRius.YNiA, MANOR OF, iii. ,40.
MORRISTOWN, X. J., iii., 543 et stq.; sufferings of
American troops at, 11.
MORRISON, K., of Va., ii., 225 ; absence, 227, 316.
MORSE, SAMUEL K. B., patents telegraph, iv., 3l5.
MORTIER HOUSE, THE, iii., 495.
MORTON, OLIVER P., iv., 579.
MORTON, THOMAS, at Mt. Wollastoii, i., 423; Merry
Mount festivities, 424 ; arrested, 426 ; death, 427.
Moscoso PE ALVARADO, Luis, i., 167.
MOSELY, CAPTAIN, at Bloody Brook, ii., 411, 412
MOSES CREEK, iii., 576.
MOTT, CAPT. EDWARD, iii., 433 et seq.
MOTTE'S FORT, siege of, iv., 59
MOULDER, CAPTAIN, iii., 535.
MOULTRIK, COL. WILLIAM, iii., 466, 468 tt seq.
MOTLTRIE, FORT, iii., 469.
MOUND BUILDERS, i., 20, 21, 30.
MOUNDS in Mississippi Valley, i., 20 et seq.
MOUNT AIRY, iii., 559.
MOUNT DESERT ISLAND, named by Champlain, i., 323 ;
French settlers at, 324 ; Argal'l at, 326.
MOUNT HOLLY, NT. J., skirmish at, iii., 526.
MOUNT HOPE, ii., 406,417.
MOUNT VEKNON, why named, iii , 76.
MOUSSART, New Xetherland patroon, i., 433.
MOWATT, CAPTAIN, at Cape Ann, iii., 416.
MUD, campaign in the, iv., 510.
MUIILENHERG, GENERAL, iii., 544.
MULLIGAN. JAMES, at Lexington, iv., 457.
MURFREE, MAJOR, at Stony Point, iii , 615.
MURFREESBOROUGH, Bragg at, iv., 534 : battle of, 536.
MURPHY, COLONEL, at Holly Springs, iv., 539.
MURPHY, HENRY C., on Verrazano, i., 179, note.
MURRAY, lawyer, iii , 230, note.
MURRAY, CAPTAIN, in Acadia, iii., 277.
MURRAY, CAPTAIN, iu the Mediterranean, iv., 156.
MURRAY, GEN., iii., 304; captures Montreal, 311;
defeated on Plains of Abraham, 311.
MURRAY, JOHN, iii., 227
MURRAY, MRS., detains Howe, iii., 506.
MUSCOGEE INDIANS, in Florida, ii., 564.
MUSCOVY COMPANY of England, i., 345. !
MUSGRAVE, COL., at X. Y., iii., 493; at Germantown,
559 et seif
MUSGRAVE, PHILIP, iii , 137.
MUSGROVE, JOHN, JR., iii., 166.
MUSGROVE, MARY, iii., 145 ; claim to Georgia, 166.
MUTINY UK THE PENNSYLVANIA LINE, iv., 50.
MUTINY Acv, THE, iii., Jijl, S53.
MYER, KICUARD, a Ranter, ii., 175.
MYGGE.NHORG [Elsingborgj, ii., 153.
MYSTIC RIVER, Conn., ii., 12.
V AHANADA, an Indian of Maine, i., 317 ; welcomes
-^ the English, 318.
XAHANT BAY, named Pye Bay by Block, i., 359.
XANPAN, of N. Y., iii., 37.
NANSEMOND, in Virginia, i., 294.
i XANSEMOND RIVER, Va., ii., 270.
| XANTASKET, settlers at, i., 419.
NANTUCKET, Xorthmen visit, i., 40 ; named Viuland
by the Dutch, 360 ; iu Duke of York's grant; ii.,
260; settlement of, iii., 2, 10.
NANUNTENOO, chief, ii., 404, 416.
XAPOLEON J., influence in American affairs, iv., 142.
NAPOLEON 111., attempts to interfere in civil war,
iv.,512.
NARRAGANSETT BAY, Xorthmen in, i., 41 ; Verrazano,
178; Block, 359; Dutch trade, 366; ii., 11.
XARRAGANSETT INDIANS, i., 405 ; ii., 8 et seq., 90 et
seq.; iii., 114.
XARRAUANSETT PATENT, ii., 100 et seq. ; iii., 116.
XARRAGANSETT RIVER, iii., 113.
NASHVILLE, Tenn., its importance, iv.,518 ; taken by
Buell, 519 ; battle of, 584.
NATCHEZ, Miss., fossils found at, i., 15 ; trading-post,
ii., 539 ; captured, iv., 7.
NATCHEZ INDIANS, ii., 514, 515, 540 et seq.
NATCHITOUIIES, ii., 546, 599, 601.
NATIONAL ROAD, iv., 274.
XAUMKEAU, now Salem, settled, i., 421 ; ii., 436, note.
NAVAL ACTIONS, iii., 618-623
N\VAL EXPEDITION, a French against the provinces,
iii. ,216.
NAVAL STORES, exportation of, iii., 246.
XAVARRO, anticipates war, iv., 139.
XAVESINK INDIANS, ii., 493.
XAVIDAD, Cabrillo sails from, ii., 569.
NAVIGATION ACT, ii., 201; in Va., 227, 228, iii., 332.
NAVY, beginning of the, iii., 414, 417: policy con
cerning, iv., 155; decay of, 175; at opening of
war with England, 191 : additions ordered, 205.
NAVY ISLAND, affair at, iv., 355.
XAWSET ISLAND, near ('ape Cod, i., 41, 314.
XAYLOR, JAMES, the Ranter, ii., 175.
XEAL, CAPTAIN, killed, iii., 535.
XEAL, JAMES, Baltimore's attorney, ii., 253.
NEALE. COL., reenforces Sumpter, iv., 32.
NEALE, THOMAS, postal service, iii., 64.
NEANDERTHAL SKULL, THE, i.. 33.
NEBRASKA BILL, introduced, iv., 405 ; passed, 408.
XECESSITY, FORT, iii., 260.
NECHES INDIANS and mission, ii., 601.
NECK, FORT, iii., 115.
NECOTOWANCE, ii., 206.
XEEDHAM, CAPTAIN, in X. Y., ii., 320.
NEEMHAM, SUMNER II., iv., 447, note.
XEGLEY, GEN. JAMES S., at Nashville, iv., 532.
NEGRO FORT, iv., 248.
NEGRO PLOT. THE, iii., 224 ft seq.
XEGUO REGIMENT, A, iii., 600.
NEGRO TROOPS, use of, iv. , 543.
NEGROES, enlistment of, iv., 467.
NELSON, Gov., at Yorktown, iv., 72.
XEMACOLIN, an Indian, iii., 258, 265
XESHAMINY CREEK, iii., 551.
NETHERLANDS, THE, i., 340, 341.
NEUTRAL ISLAND, settled by the French, i., 314.
NEVILLE, GEN. JOHN, iv., 119.
NEW ALBION COMPANY, THE, ii.,209.
NEW ALBION, PORT OF, Cal., ii., 571 et seq.
NEW AMSTEL, ii., 161 et seq., 249 et seq., 266.
NEW AMSTERDAM (see also X. Y.), Stuyvesant at, ii ,
115 et seq.: Board of Nine Men, 123: attack by
Indians, 230; surrendered, 262 et seq.; named
New York, 266.
NEWARK, N. J., founded, ii , 323 ; army at, iii., 521 ;
British raid on, iv., 12.
NEWARK. Canada, burned, iv., 202.
634
INDEX TO THE FOUR VOLUMES.
NEW BEDFORD burned, iii.. 607.
NEWBERN, battle of, iv., 462.
NEW BERNE, N. 0., how named, iii., 92.
NEW BRUNSWICK, N. J., iii., 522.
NEWBURGH, condition of tbe army at, iv., 83 ; the
addresses, 86.
NEWBURYPORT, iv., 245.
NEWCASTLE, Del., ii., 153, 162, 267
NEW DORP, Staten Island, ii., 245.
NEW ENGLAND, landing of Northmen in, i., 40 ;
called North Virginia, 315 ; named by Prince
Charles, 328; iii., 2, 11.
NEW ENGLAND Co. and Cape Fear, ii., 272 et seq.
NEW ENGLAND, UNITED COLONIES OF. (See United
Colonies, etc.)
NEWFOUNDLAND, visited by the Northmen, i., 40; by
Cartier, 181 ; Baltimore's colony, 486.
NEW FRANCE, iii., 311.
NEW GOTTENBURG, Swedish post, I., 471.
NEW HAERLEM. (See Harlem.)
NEW HAMPSHIRE, tribes in, i., 311 ; settlement of,
333; named, 336; ii., 419 et seq.; included in
Mass., 421; laws, 424, 425; townships, iii., 139;
Shute and Vaughan, 198 ; separate province, 199 ;
declares independence, 480 ; adopts a constitution,
487 ; its peculiarities, 489.
NEW HAVEN, ii., 28, 30 ; joins confederation, 49 ;
claimed by Stuyvesaiit, 125 ; colonists from, 154 ;
under Conn., 255 ; raid upon, iii., 615 ; blacks de
nied education in, 334.
NEWICHAWANKOCK. (See Berwick.)
NEW JERSEY, granted, and named, ii., 321 ; iii., 4, 5,
9 ; added to N. E., 11 ; parties in, 40 ; under Corn-
bury, 41 ; separated from N. Y., 247 ; declares for
independence, 482 ; adopts Constitution, 487 ; its
peculiarities, 488 ; the campaign of 1776-7 in, 520
et seq. ; campaign of 1778, 602 et seg.
NEW JERSEY TROOPS, insubordination of, iv., 3.
NEW LONDON, Connecticut, ii., 4: iii., 623; Arnold's
expedition, 68 ; burned, 69 ; decadence of, 245.
NEW LOTS, L. I., iii.. 500.
NEWMAN, ROBERT, of New Haven, ii., 30, note.
NEW MARKET, N. J., iii., 651,
NEWMARKET, N. II., atrocities at, ill., 193.
NEW MEXICO, ii., 580 ; silver mines of, 597 ; occupied
by U. S. forces, 372.
NEWNANSVILLE, fight near, iv., 353.
NEW NETHERLAND. (See New York.)
NEW NETHERLAND COMPANY, chartered, i., 361, 363.
NEW ORANGE, ii., 349 et seq.
NEW ORLEANS, fossils found in, i., 15 ; ii., 532, 539 ;
ceded to Spain, iii., 312 ; preparations to attack,
iv., 140 ; battle of, 234 et seq. ; captured by Farra-
gut, 526 et seq. ; Butler's governorship, 529.
" NEWPORT," THE, an English frigate, ii., 449.
NEWPORT, H. I., round tower at, i., 59 ; settled, Ii.,
46 ; c"auses of prosperity in 17th century , iii., Ill ;
threatened, 417 ; decadence of, iv., 245.
NEWPORT, CHRISTOPHER, in Virginia, i., 269 et seq.,
285 et seq., 292.
NEWPORT NEWS, camp at, iv., 450.
" NEWS LETTER/' THE BOSTON, iii., 1(53.
NEW SOMERSETSHIRE, Maine, i., 336 ; ii., 374.
NEWSPAPER, first in Va., iii., 77 ; first in Boston, 136.
NEWTON, Mass., emigration from, ii., 25.
NEWTON, CAPTAIN, ii., 118.
NEWTOWN [Elmira], battle of, iv., 4.
NEWTOWN, Long Island, ii., 86, 145, 257 ; iii., 504.
NEW UTRECHT, Long Island, ii., 245.
NEW WINDSOR, N. Y , iii., 615.
NEW YORK (State), granted to the Duke of York, ii.,
260 ; government of, 320 ; boundary of, 324 et seq. ;
iii.. 1 et seq. ; granted an Assembly, 7 ; " Charter
of Libertys and Privileges,1' 8 ; growth, 10 ; added
to N. E., 11; revolution in, 12, 13; Protestant
movement in, 15 ; Leisler, 22 ; first Assembly. 23 ;
bills of credit, 43 ; increase between 1691 and' 1741,
242 ; on taxation, 337 ; adopts constitution, 487 ;
on independence, 482.
NEW YORK (city), taken by the English, ii., 266 ;
government of, 329 ; description of, 338 et seq. ; re
capture, 348 ; restored to England, 534 ; progress
of, iii , 2 ; William and Mary proclaimed in, 15;
fortifications, 20 ; in 1704, 243 et seq. ; Gage's in
tention to occupy, 455, note ; prepares for war,
456; fortified, 461 et seq., 490 ; occupied by the
British, 510 ; fire in, 510 ; its capture attempted, iv.,
65; evacuated by British, 89; draft riots, 559.
NEYON, M., iii., 321.
NIAGARA, fort at, iii., 255 ; Shirley's expedition, 282
et seq.; captured by Johnson, 301; massacie at,
iv., 202 ; battle of, 212.
NIAGARA FALLS, village. (See Manchester.)
NIAGARA FALLS, visited by |ji Salle, ii., 510.
NICA, FRIAR MARCO, i., 192 ; in California, ii., 567.
NICHOLS, a New York lawyer, iii., 230, note.
NICHOLS, COLONEL, iii. ,581 ; in Florida, iv., 248.
NICHOLSON, FRANCIS, of N. Y., iii., 11, 12, 13; ap
pointed Lieut;. -gov., 27 ; Port Royal expedition, 45 ;
Lieut.-gov., of Va., 58 ; Gov. of Md., 61 ; of Va., 66 ;
controversy on Indians, 69; Miss Burwell, 70 ; Gov.
of S. C., 103.
NICOLA, LEWIS, his letter to Washington, iv., 85.
NICOLLET, JEAN, in Wisconsin, ii., 500.
NICOLLS, CAPTAIN MATTHIAS, N. Y., ii., 320.
NICOLLS, RICHARD, of N. Y., ii., 260 et seq.; demands
surrender, 262, 266: government, S'Zi et seq . ; de
parture, 337.
NICOT, LORD, tobacco named for, i., 250, note.
NIKA, with Ui Salle, ii., 520.
NINE MEN, BOARD OF, ii., 122, 123, 130 et seq.
NINETY-SIX, fight at, iii., 613 ; siege of, 60.
NINIGRET, ii., 16, 141, 146.
NIPMUCK (or NIPMET) INDIANS, ii., 405, 407.
NIXON, JOHN, reads Declaration, iii., 487, 495.
NIXON'S BRIGADE, iii., 575.
NOAILLES, DUKE DE, ii., 529.
XOGALES, iv., 139.
NOLAN, PHILIP, on conquest of Mexico, iv., 141, note ;
death, 150, 361.
No MAN'S LAND, island of, i., 265 ; N. Y., Hi., 10.
NON-IMPORTATION AGREEMENTS, iii., 343.
NOOK'S HILL, iii., 425, 427.
NORFOLK, Di'KE or, proposed settlement of in Vir
ginia, i., 487, note.
NORRIDGEWOCK, mission at, iii. ,123; attacked, 124;
destruction of, 194.
NORRIS, ISAAC, quoted, iii., 185.
NORTH, CHIEF JUSTICE, draws up the charter of Penn
sylvania, ii., 487.
NORTH, LORD, iii., 365; East India Co., 367; pro
posals for peace, 600 ; ministry dissolved, iv., 75.
NORTHAMPTON, ii., 415; revivalism in, iii., 205-
NORTH ANNA, affair on the, iv., 576.
NORTH BEND, iv., 112.
NORTHCASTLE HEIGHTS, ill., 515.
NORTH CASTLE, Rochambeau's troops reach, iv., 65.
NORTH CAROLINA, Raleigh's colony in, i., 241 ; elects
Governor, iii., 87 ; Hyde and Cary, 88-91 ; Indian
war in, 91, 93; declares for independence, 477;
adopts a constitution, 487.
NORTHEAST PASSAGE, search for by Willoughby, i.,
228 ; Barentz, 344 ; Hudson, 345.
NORTHERN CONFEDERACY, a, iv., 227.
NORTHERN NECK, of Va., iii., 57, note.
NORTHFIELD, Mass , attack on, ii., 411.
"NORTH HEMPSTEAD, Long Island, ii., 34.
NORTH KINGSTON, R. ]., fort at, Ji., 417.
NORTHMEN, at Iceland, i.,36: Greenland, 37 : voy
ages West, 41, 42, 45, 47 : rights with Skraellings,
44, 52; relics sought for, 59.
NORTH POINT, battle of, iv., 222.
NORTHWEST PASSAGE, search for by Cabot, i., 137 ;
Frobisher, 230 ; Davis, 231.
NORTHWEST TERRITORY, organization of, iv., 109;
proposed names of States in, 109, note ; settle
ment of, 168.
NORTON, HUMPHREY, at New Haven, ii., 188.
NORTON, KEV. JOHN, opposes Friends, ii., 189;
preaches, 192 ; in England, 197 ; death of, 198.
NORUMBEGA, name of Maine, i., 310.
NORWALK, Conn., destroyed, iii., 615.
NORWOOD, COL., ii., 207 et seq.
NOTELMAN, CONRAD, i., 435.
NOTELY, THOMAS, of Md., iii., 61.
NOTT, EDWARD, iii., 71.
NOURSE, REBECCA, of Salem, ii., 457.
NOVA SCOTIA, shell heaps in, i., 14 : named Mark-
land, 40; DeMonts at. 313; granted to Alexander,
332 ; ii., 331, 335 ; ceded to England, iii., 46, 126,
311 ; emigation to, 270, 271 ; Cornwall!?'* opinion
of, 272.
INDEX TO THE FOUR VOLUMES.
635
NOYE, 1'KTER DE I,A, ill., 15, 20.
NOVES, RKV. MK., il., 462.
NOYES, MRS., ill., 393.
NULLIFICATION, first appearance of the word, iv.,
130; in South Carolina, 306: position of various
States on, 309.
NuSfr.z, VASCO. (See Balboa.)
NUTTEN ISLAND, N. Y., Indians at, ii., 230.
NUTTER, ANTHONY, ii., 431, 432.
/ VBRIKN, .IKHEMIAII, made marine captain, hy
' .Massachusetts, iii., 414.
" OBSERVER, '• THE, suppressed, iv., 331.
OCMULGEE INDIANS, in Florida, ii., 564.
O'CONNOR, CAPTAIN, his coat-skirts, iii., 373.
OORACOKE ISLAND, North Carolina, i., 242.
OMORNE'S POINT, N. II., ii., 421.
OGDEN, COLONEL, at Springfield, iv., 15 ; sent to Con
gress with a memorial, iv. , 86.
OGHKWAGA destroyed, iii., 609.
OGI.ETHORPE, JAMES EDWARD, ii., 560, 661 et *erj. ; iii.,
143 ; sails forGeorgia, 144 ; at Savanna"h, 145 ; the
Salzburgers, 151*; slavery and rum-selling, 163,
154; his jurisdiction over S. C., 156; rank and
service, 156, note : journey to Coweta, 157 ; war
with the Spaniards, 159 et seg. : return to England,
165 ; his last years, 165 ; letter from, 240.
OGLETHORPE, SIR TIIEOPHILUS, iii., 143.
O'llARA, GEN., at Yorktown, iv., 74.
OHIO, known as \Vest Augusta, iii., 610.
OHIO COMPANY, THE, iii., 257, 259.
OHIO LIFE AND TRUST COMPANY, failure of, iv., 426.
OHIO, organized as a Territory, iv., 95.
OHIO RIVER, named by Marquette, ii.,507, note: ex
pedition to, iii., 255.
OHIO (State of), first visited, ii., 501.
OIL CREEK, iv., 6.
OJEDA, ALONZO DE, voyage of to Paria, i., 121, 142.
OLDHAM, JOHN, settles on Saco River, i., 335: at
Plymouth, 413 ; trial, 414, 415 ; at Nautasket,419 :
murdered, 557 ; ii., 1.
OLD NORTH CHURCH, Boston, signal lanterns in, iii..
384, note ; burned for firewood, 429.
OLD SOUTH CHURCH, Boston, iii., 370 et seq. ; used as
a riding-school, 429.
OLIVER, of Massachusetts, advice of, ill., 368.
OLIVER, MR., stamp distributor, iii., 343.
OLNEY, THOMAS, il., 40, note ; 113, note.
OI.OTOCARA, chief in Florada, i., 216.
ONATE, JUAN DE, in NEW MEXICO, ii., 583.
ONEIDA INDIANS, ii., 332, 335.
" ONEIDA,'' THE, at New Orleans, iv., 528.
ONIS, negotiates a treaty, iv. , 258.
ONNONTHIO, or ANONTHICA, Indian name for French
king, ii., 502, and note.
ONONDAGA, Salt Springs of, il., 234.
OOST-DORP. (See \Vestchester.)
OPAS INDIANS, ii., 594.
OP ECHANCANOUGH, chief in Va.,i., 280; hostility to
the English, 479 ; Ii., 204, 205.
OPOTRS INDIANS, ii., 587.
ORANGE, N. .!., in Newark purchase, ii., 323, note.
ORANGEHURG, capture of, iv., 60.
ORD, LIEUT. E. 0. C., sent to California, iv., 373.
ORDER IN COUNCIL, iv., 123, 174.
OREGON, visited by Drake, ii., 553. 571 : dispute over
the territory, iv., 366.
ORGAN MOUNTAINS, il., 579.
O'KiELLY, HENRY, cited, Iv., 303. note.
ORINOCO RIVER, discovered, i., 118.
ORISKANY, battle of, iii., 578.
ORKNEY, EARL OF, iii., 71.
ORLEANS, DUKE OF, ii., 526; aids John Law, 529;
grants American monopoly, 531.
ORME, Braddock's aid, iii., 270.
ORNE, iii., 386.
ORTIZ, JUAN, story of, i., 158.
OSAGE INDIANS, ii., 601.
OSBORN, SIR DANVERS, of N. Y., iii., 253.
OSCEOLA, at the council, iv., 351 ; died, 353.
OSSABAW ISLAND, iii., 167.
OSSIPEE POND, stockade at, iii., 195.
OSWALD, LIEUT -COL., iii., 547, 548.
OSWALD, RICHARD, sent to Paris, iv., 76.
OSWEGO, fort at, iii., 18 ; French move against. 283 :
taken, 290.
OTIS, HARBISON GRAY, a Southerner's letter to, iv.,
326 : satirized, 239.
OTIS, JAMES, letter to Mauduit, Hi., 335, 336 ; his
pamphlet, 336.
OTIS, JAMES, JR., opposes the writs of assistance, Hi.,
332 ; John Adams on, 332.
OTIS, JOSEPH, Hi., 478.
OTSANDERKET, LAKE, Hi., 255.
OTSEGO LAKE, Clinton dams up, iv., 3.
OTTAWA INDIANS, ii., 510.
OUABOUSKIGOU. (See Ohio River.)
OUATANON, FORT, iii., 256: captured, 322.
OUTRAGES by the British forces in New Jersey, iii.,
520, 526, note.
OWEN, GUTTUN, a Welsh bard, i., 67.
OWEN, GWYNNED, prince, i., 68.
OXENSTIERN, CHANCELLOR, of Sweden, i. , 466.
OYSTER BAY, ii., 35, 38 ; [Folestoue], 257.
OYSTER POINT [Charleston, S. C.], ii., 355.
OYSTER RIVER, N. II., ii., 447.
pABLO QUIIIUE, conspiracy of, against the Span
iards, ii., o92.
PACIFIC OCEAN, discovered, i., 144.
PAINE, THOMAS, his Common Sense, iii., 471, 557 ;
on Valley Forge, 593, note.
PAKANA INDIANS, ii., 564.
PAKENHAM, SIR E., at New Orleans, iv., 234 et seq.
PAKENHAM, MR., minister at Washington, iv., 367.
PALMER, COL., at St. Augustine, ii., 562.
PALMER, GEN., iv., 532
PALMER, LIEUT., Hi., 570.
PALMER'S ISLAND, Chesapeake Bay, ii., 214.
PALO ALTO, battle of, iv., 370.
PALOS, Columbus sails from, i., 110.
PANAMA, congress at, iv., 283. ^^_^
PANIC of 1837, iv., 812)
PANUCO, Spanish colony of, i., 155.
PAOLI, Wayne surprised at. iii., 557.
PAPAJO INDIANS, ii., 587, 595.
PAPER MONEY, iii., 131 : in Penn., 187 ; in Mass.,
217. (See also Bills of Credit.)
PAPPEGOYA, JOHN, on the Delaware, ii., 155.
PARADISE POINT, in Delaware, i., 467.
PARENT'S CREEK, iii., 317, 319.
PARIA, GULF OF, Columbus at, i., 118.
PARIS, THE TREATY OF, Hi., 318.
PARKE, JOHN G., in Roanoke Expedition, iv., 462.
PARKER, REV. JAMES, at Portsmouth, il., 422.
PARKER, JOHN, at Lexington, ill., 386.
PARKER, ADMIRAL PETER, in N. C., iii., 464, 466;
killed, iv , 222.
PARKS, WILLIAM, press in Va., iii., 77.
PARLIAMENT passes Navigation Act, il., 201.
PARRIS, COLONEL, Hi., 101 ; another, 577.
PARRIS, REV. SAMUEL, at Salem, ii., 454, 456.
PARRIS, ELIZABKTH. 11., 457 : bewitched, 458.
PARRY, LIEUT. -COL., killed, iii., 500.
PARSONS, at Concord, Hi., 390.
PARSONS, GENERAL, Hi., 432, 495 : iv., 455.
PARTIES, political, rise of, iv., 143.
PARTISAN WARFARE at the South, Hi., 613 ; in the
Carolinas, iv., 32 et seq
PARTRIDGE, CAPTAIN, punishes witch-finder, ii., 463.
PARTRIDGE, WILLIAM, of N. IL, ii., 432 et seq.
PASCAGOULA, La., Ii., 533, note.
PASPAHEY, Indian king of, i., 291.
PASQUAI.IGO, LORENZO, i , 134, 136, 141, note.
PASKUOTANK, insurrection in, ii., 286.
PASQUOTANK RIVER, settlements on, ii., 280.
PASSACONAWAY, ii., 436.
PASTORIUS, FRANZ, in Pennsylvania, ii., 488.
PATROONS, in New Netherland, i., 430.
PATTERSON, proposes the Jersey plan, iv., 101.
PATTERSON, pioneer, HI., 610.
PATTERSON, COL., Hi., 496 : at Trenton, 528.
PATTERSON, GEN., Hi., 673, note.
PATTERSON, ROBT., iv., 451.
PATUXENT RIVER, ii., 214.
PATUXET, Indian name of Plymouth, i., 401.
PAUGUS, Indian, Hi., 196, note.
PAULDING, COMMODORE, iv., 428.
PAULDING, JOHN, captor of Andre, iv., 24.
PAULLY, ENSIGN, at Sandusky, Hi., 321.
PAULUS HOOK, iii., 490; surprised, 617.
I'AUW, MICHAEL, patroon, i., 432 ft se</.
636
INDEX TO THE FOUR VOLUMES.
I'AVOXIA, in Now Xetherland, i., 432 ; bought by the
West India Co., 442; il., 122 ; destroyed, 231.
I'AWATAH, a chief in Virginia, i., 272.
PAWCATUCK RIVER, ii.,12 ; boundary of 11. 1., ill. ,113.
PAWTUCKET, K. 1., growth of, iv., 245 ; manufacture*
begun in, 315.
PAWTUXET, R. I., ii., 69, 72 : jurisdiction, 74, 75, 99.
PAXTON MEN. THE, ill., 326, 327.
PAYNE'S LANDING, treaty of, iv.. 350.
PEACE NEGOTIATIONS, lii , 490, 512.
PEACE CONGRESS, iv., 438.
" PEACOCK," THE, captures the Eperritr, iv., 224.
PEA RIDGE, battle of, Iv . 542.
PEARL STREET (New York), ii., 340.
PEARSON, Capt. of the Seraph, iii., 618, 620.
PEEKSKILL, X. Y., British attack on, iii.. 547.
PEGGY (Xegro Plot), iii., 225 et strj.
PEIRCE, JOHN, his patents, i., 403, 412.
PIERCE, WILLIAM, at Cape Ann, i., 419 ; arrival of at
Nantasket, 553.
PEKITANOUI. (See Missouri.)
PELEZ, MARTIN, at Cinaloa, ii., 583.
PELHAM, MR., a special providence, ii., 56.
'• PELICAN, ': THE, ii., 570.
" PELICAN," THE, captured, iv., 206.
PELICAN BAY, Oregon, ii., 571.
PELL, JOSHUA, Jit., iii., 574, 587, 590.
PELL, THOMAS, in \Vestchester Co., ii., 245, 260.
PELL'S POINT, iii., 513.
PEMAUUID, Maine, i., 315: Indian village in, 318;
English fishing at, 325 : purchased of Indians, 335 ;
fort at, ii., 399 ; iii., 3, 5, 9, 10.
PEMUERTON, GEN. J. C., at Vicksburg, iv.,538 el seq.,
557.
PENACOOK INDIANS, ii., 435.
PENDI.ETON, MR., iii., 1338.
" PENGUIN," THE, captured, iv., 225.
PENN, JOHN, born, iii., 171 ; in Philadelphia, 189.
PENN, THOMAS, in Philadelphia, iii., 189.
PENS, SIR WILLIAM, ii., 157, 480, 481.
PENN, WILLIAM, on civil government, ii., 198, 199 ;
settles dispute, 475 ; life and character of, 480 el
sei).: grant of Pa., 486, 487; sails, 489: in Pa.,
492,498; treaty, 493; return, 495, 497 : one of the
purchasers of Kast Jersey, iii , 6 ; takes lands of
the Delaware, 9 ; defeats Cornbury:s scheme, 40 ;
returns to his colony, 170: his mode of life, 172,
173; recalled to England, 174; on slavery, 175;
treaty with the Indians, 177 : favor at court, 179 :
financial troubles, 1 9 : his last years, his will, 184.
PENN, WILLIAM, JR., conduct of, iii., 183.
PENNSBURY MANOR, iii., 171.
PENNSYLVANIA, named, ii., 487: encroaching upon
X. Y., iii., 9 ; emancipation of slaves in, 177 ; new
charter, 178 : passes to Penn's heirs, 184 ; the As-1
senibly refuses to furnish men and money for war
purposes, 185 ; population in 1731,188; her pro
test against taxation, 337 : on Independence. 48o :
adopts a Constitution, 487; the campaign of 1777
in , 543 el xeq.
PENNSYLVANIA HALL, burned, iv., 331.
PENOBSCOT BAY, settlement on, iii., 197, note.
PENOBSCOT INDIANS, i., 310 : ii., 435.
PENOIISCOT RIVER, i., 310 : Champlain on, 314 ; mis
sionaries, 323 : trading-house on, ii., 9.
l'ENSACOLA,Fla., ii., 522, 533, 558; taken by fialvez,
iv , 7 ; occupied by British forces, 233 ; seized by
Jackson, 256.
" PENSACOLA," THE, at New Orleans, iv., 527.
PENTUCKKT, Indian village, ii., 436.
1'F.i'ERELL, WILLIAM, ii., 427, note.
I'EPPERELL, SIR WILLIAM, expedition against Louis-
burg, iii.. 210 ; first American Baronet, 215, 262.
PEO.UAWKETT INDIANS, iii., 195.
PEQUOT INDIANS, ii., 2 et srq., 12, 15.
I'EHUOT RIVER. (See Thames.)
1'Eo.uoTs, war with, i., 558 ; ii., 3, 12, 14, 15, 20, 21.
I'ERCIVAL, LORD, iii., 143. note.
I'ERCY, KARL, in Boston, iii., 382, 426 ; at X. Y., 493.
PERCY, SIR GEORGE, at Jamestown, i., 269 : in New
port's expedition, 273: account of the colony,
275 : President of, 295, 298.
PERDIDO RIVER, iv., 202.
PERESTRELLO, FELIPA, wife of Columbus, i., 99.
PEREZ DE MARCHINA, JUAN, i., 107.
PERIER, at New Orleans, ii., 544. 546.
PERKINS, MR., iv., 421.
PERKINS, THOS. II., iv.,314.
PERROT, XICOLAS, a French trader, ii.,502.
PERROT ISLAND, fighting at. iii., 450.
PERRY, 8ERGEANT-MAJOR,at Cowpens, iv,, 43.
PERRY, COMMODORE M. C., iv.,402.
PERRY, OLIVER HAZARD, his victory, iv., 198.
PERRYVILLE, battle of, iv.. 531.
PERTH, KARL OF, iii., 6, note.
PERTH AMUOV, iii., 6, 246.
PESSICUS, sachem, ii., 91, 141.
PETERS, REV. HUGH, Mass, agent, ii., 101, 377.
PETERSBURG, siege of, iv., 589 et SK/.
PETERSZOON OF AMSTERDAM, i., 343, note.
PETIT ANSE ISLAND, fossils found on, i., 15.
PETITION, the right of, iv., 338 et .ter/.
PETTIGREW, GEN , at Gettysburg, iv., 555.
PHELPS, CAPT. NOAH, iii.', 432, 433, note.
PHELPS, WILLIAM, ii., 22, note.
PHILADELPHIA, ii., 150, 151, 492: its appearance in
1699, Iii., 171 ; charter, 178 ; Howe's approach to,
653 ; Congress leaves, 557 ; Howe occupies, 558 ;
evacuated, 601 ; size of at close of Revolution, 91.
" PHILANTHROPIST," THE, suppressed, iv., 330.
PHILESIUS. (See Rmgmann.)
" PHILIP," THE, ship of Carteret, ii., 321.
PHILIP, KING, ii., 402. 404 ft n></., 415, 417, 418.
PHILIP OF SPAIN, i.. 253 ; his policy, 341.
PHILIPS, MR., iii., 526, note
PHILLIPS, REV. WILLIAM, i., 540.
PHILLIPS, with Burgoyne, iii , 568 ft se<j.
PHILLIPS, GEN., Coruwallis's letter to, iv., 33 ; his
campaign in Virginia, 53, 54.
PHILLIPS, RICHARD, of N. S., iii., 274.
PHILLIPS, WENDELL, iv., 331.
PiiiLLipSE, FREDERICK, of N. Y., Hi., 12 : Judge. 223.
1'HlLLIPSEalld CORTLANDT, iii., 18.
PHIPS, SIR WILLIAM, of Mass., ii., 395 ft .«<•</.;
knighted, 427, note ; witch trials. 459 ; death, 400 ;
iii., 25 et seq.; brings charter of Mass, and ap
pointed Gov., 109: death of, 110
" PHCEBE," THE, fights the Exse.r, iv., 223.
PHOENICIANS in America, i.. 35.
PICKENS, COL. ANDREW, iii., 613.
PICKENS, COL., at battle of Cowpens, iv., 41.
PICKENS, Gov., iv., 445.
PICKERING, JOHN, in Portsmouth, ii.. 424.
PICKERING, COL. TIMOTHY, at Salem, iii ,378; blamed
unjustly, 393: plans a new State, 1)5
PICKETT, GEN. GEO. K., at Gettysburg, iv., 555.
PICOLATA, Fla.. ii., 564.
PIEDMONT, witchcraft trials in, ii., 451.
PIERCE, CAPTAIN, in Philip's war, ii., 416.
PIERCE, FRANKLIN, in Mexico, iv., 378, 379 ; elected
President, 404 ; his weakness, 415 ; assurance to
secessionists, 439.
PIEKSON, ABRAHAM, at Newark, N. J., il., 323.
PIGOT, GENERAL, at Bunker Hill, iii., 400; at New
York, 493.
PIKE, ALBERT, iv.. 542.
PIKE, ROBERT, of Nantucket, iii , 2, note.
PIKE, ZEBULON M., killed, iv., 196.
PILE, WILLIAM, of Nantucket, iii., 2, note.
PILGRIM FATHERS, THE, origin of the name of, I., 386 ;
their departure from Europe, 386 ; at Province-
town, 387 ; their compact, 388 ; at Plymouth, 395.
PII.KINGTON, GENERAL, at Macliias, iv., 216.
PILLOW, FORT, abandoned by the rebels, iv., 520;
Forrest's massacre at, 588.
PILLOW, GENERAL, at Fort Donelson, iv., 517.
I'IMERIA, missions, ii.. 593, 594.
PIMOS INDIANS, ii., 593.
PINCKNEY, his rule, iv., 339.
PINCKNEY, CHARLES C., candidate for Vice-president,
iv., 143, 145; in ('(institutional convention, 101.
PINCKNEY, THOMAS, candidate for Vice-president, iv.,
128: envoy to France, 132.
PINE TREE COINAGE in Mass.. ii., 385 et stq.
PINZON FAMILY, of Palos, i., 107, 139 ; one of in Lab
rador, 139. ,
PINZON. MARTIN AI.ONZO, i., 110.
PIN/.ON, VICENTE YANE/, i., 110 ; sails to South Amer
ica, 123; in the Caribbean Sea, 142.
PIONEERS, WESTERN, iii., 610 et set/.
PIRATES, Kidd sent against, iii., Sietsfj.; defeated,
98. 99.
INDEX TO THE FOUR VOLUMES.
63T
PIRTI.E, HENRY. HI. , 612. note.
PISCATAQUA. (See Kitten.)
PISCATACJI'A RIVER, colonists at, 1., 333: ii.. 41'.' >t \
set/., 436, note.
PISCATAWAY INDIANS, in Virginia, ii., 294.
PISCATAWAY RIVER, ii., 294.
PISIKIOU, Indian name of Buffalo, ii., 505.
PISIQUID, iii., 274.
PITCAIRN, MAJOR, at Lexington, iii , 386.
PITKIX iii first Colonial Congress, iii., 20.
PITT, FORT, attacked, iii., 323 et seq.
PITT, WM., iii., 296, 301 ; defence of America, 346 ;
letter ti. his wife, 348; statue inN.Y.,350; Earl
of Chatham, 352 : speech, 365.
PITT, \\'M., the younger, iii., 369.
PITTSBURG LANDING, battle of, iv., 522.
PITTSFIELD, Mass., iii., 478.
PIZAFETTA, on Magellan's voyage, i., 151. note.
PIZARRO, FRANCIS, in the South Sea, i., 146.
PLAISTED, ROGER, killed, ii., 439
PLANT-CUTTING, iii., 55.
PLANTAGENET, BEAUCHAMP. ii.. 209.
PLANTIUS, a Dutch geographer, i., 343 ; discussion
with Hudson, 347.
PLATTSBURG, battle of, iv.. 215.
PLEASANT HILL, battle of, Iv., 568.
PLEASANTON, ALFRED, at Chancellorgville, iv., 547.
PLIMPTON, Priory of, ii , 419.
PI.OWDEN, SIR EDMUND. Va., ii., 209, 252, 253.
PLOWMAN, COLLECTOR, dismissed, iii., 15.
PI.U.MSTEAD, CLEMENT, a proprietor of East Jersey, Hi.,
6, note.
PLYMOUTH, Mass., i., 395 ; Pequot war, ii., 9 ; confed
eration, 49 ; decadence of, iv., 245.
PLYMOUTH COMPANY, organized, i., 267 ; its charter.
332, 336.
PocAiioNTAS, different accounts of, i., 282, 283, 285 ;
marriage and death, 3j3, 305.
POCASSET. (See Portsmouth, Ii. 1.)
" POICTIERS," captures Wasp and Frolic, iv., 192.
POINSETT, JOKL 11., iv., 285 ; on Texas, 362 : on use of
blood-hounds, 354, note.
POINT DC LAC, action at, iii., 450.
POINT JUDITH, ii., 126, note.
POINT LEVI, iii , 304 et set/.
POINT LOOKOUT, Maryland, i., 491.
POINT QUARTELLE, St. Augustine, ii.,56l.
POINT S<x MARTIN, Cal., ii., 570.
POKANOKETS. (See Wanipanoags.)
POLITICAL EDUCATION, iv., 286.
POLK, JAMES K.. elected President, iv., 368.
POLK, GEN. LEONID.AS, at Chickamauga, iv., 561 ; at
Murfreesborough, 535.
POLLARD, ANNE, in Boston, i., 532.
POLLOCK, COLONEL, of N. ('., iii., 93.
POLLOCK, OLIVER, iii., 413; with Galvez, iv., 7.
POMETACOM. (See Philip.)
POMEROY. GEN. SETII, iii., 407, note.
POMME DE TERRE RIVER, fossils on, i., 17.
POXCE DE LEON, JUAN, of Porto Rico, i., 146 ; search
for Fountain of Youth, 147 : death, 148 : ii., 554.
PONTCHARTRAIN, DUCHESSE DE, il.,542.
PONTGRAVK. expedition of, i., 312.
PONTIAC, iii., 312 et seq. ; death, 328.
POOLE, \V. F., iv., 110.
POOR, GENERAL, at Trenton, iii., 528; at Ticonde-
roga, 573, note ; at Bemus's Heights, 584 : in Sul
livan's expedition, iv , 4
POPE, JOHN, his campaign in northern Virginia, iv.,
492 et seq.: in Missouri, 458; operations against
Island No. 10, 519 : at Corinth, 526.
POPHAM, SIR FRANCIS, i., 321.
POPIIAM, GEORGE, i., 268, 317 : death of, 320.
POPIIAM, SIR JOHX, tries Raleigh, i., 261 : his colony,
268 ; Indian captives sent to, 316: death, 320.
PORT BILL. The Boston, iii., 374.
PORT HUDSON, surrendered, iv.. 559.
PORT MOUTON, Nova Scotia, i., 314.
PORT Rt.puBLic, iv., 474.
PORT ROYAL, Nova Scotia, colony at, i., 314,322; de
stroyed, 327 ; expeditions against, iii.. 45, 125.
PORT ROYAL, S^ C., Ribault at, i., 193, 220 : ii., 282,
360, 361 ; battle near, iii., 96.
PORT ROYAL EXPEDITION, iv., 459.
PORTAGE COUNTY, \Vis., ii., 503.
PORTER, COLONEL, iv., 542.
PORTER, DAVID, rnii.-c in the Atlantic, iv., 190;
cruise in the Pacific, and loss of the Essex, 222.
VORTEH. DAVID D., at Fort Hindman, 5411: at New
Orleans, 526 et set/. ; in Red River, expedition, 567.
PORTER, EDMUND, sent to England, iii., 86.
PORTER, FITZ JOHN, at Hanover Court House, 475.
PORTER, JOHN, ii., 44, note : 113, note.
PORTER, PETER B., at Chippewa, iv., 211.
PORTER'S ROCKS, ii., 12.
PORTLAND, DUKE OF, his ministry reject Erskiue's
treaty, iv., 181.
PORTLAND, Me. (See Falmouth.)
PORTO SANTO, residence of Columbus, i., 99.
PORTSMOUTH, N. II., settled, i., 333; ii., 421.
PORTSMOUTH, R. I. (Pocasset), ii., 44.
PORTSMOUTH, Va., evacuated, iv., 71.
PORY, JOHN, in Va., ii., 270.
POSTAL SERVICE, established in Va., iii., 64.
POTASH, attempts to manufacture, iii., 246.
POTOMAC RIVER, i. , 220 : Spanish vessel in. 222 : John
Smith in, 287 ; Argall, 303.
POTTAWOTAMIES, sue for peace, ill., 318.
POTTER, COLONEL, killed, iii., 535.
POTTER, ROBERT, of Gorton party, ii., 75, note.
POTTERFIELD, COL. , at battle of Camden, iv., 35.
POTTERY, earliest, i., 7 ; of mound builders, 28.
POTTS, ISAAC, iii., 593.
POTTS, DR. JOHN, of Virginia, i., 484.
POTTS, WM., in rebellion, ii., 317.
POUCHOT surrenders, iii., 302 ; cited, 298.
POULET, CAPT., ii., 502.
POUHTRINCOURT, BARON DE, in Acadia, i., 313,323;
New England, 322.
POVERTY POINT, post at, ii., 523.
POWDER, how obtained, iii., 413.
POWER, NICHOLAS, of Gorton party, ii., 75, note.
POWHATAN, i., 257, 283, 284 ; John Smith before, 280,
2S1 ; coronation, 288 ; sells lands, 294 ; death, 305.
POWNALL, of Mass., at Penobscot Bay, iii., 197, note ;
in Parliament, 353.
PRAIRIE GROVE, iv., 542.
PRAYER BOOK, to be introduced, iii., 26.
PREBLE, COMMODORE, at Tangier, iv., 157.
PBESCOTT, British General, iii., 549.
PRESCOTT, DR., iii., 385.
PRESCOTT, COL. WILLUM, iii., 397.
" PRESIDENT," THE, Rogers's cruise in, iv., 191 ; rights
the Emlymion, 225.
PRESIDENT and Vice-president, change in method of
electing, iv., 145.
PRESIDIO DEL NORTE, a Spanish post on the Rio
Grande, ii., 298.
PRESQU: ISLE, FORT, iii., 257, 322.
PRESTER JOHN, i , 106
PRESTON, CAPT., iii.. 361. 363.
PRESTON, MAJOR, at St. John's, iii., 440.
PRESTON, MR., ii., 217.
PRESTON, SAMUEL, Iii., 180.
PREVOST, GEN., in Ga., iii., 613; in command at Sa
vannah, iv., 9 ; surrenders Charleston, 13 ; at
tacks Sackett's Harbor, 196.
PREVOST, SIR GEORGE, attempts invasion of New
York, iv., 214.
PRICE, ARTHUR (Negro Plot), iii., 229 et seq.
PRICE, ENSIGN, at Fort Le Boeuf, iii., 323.
PRICE, EZEKIEL, his diary quoted, iii., 428.
PRICE, (JEN. STERLING, at Corinth, iv., 534.
PRICES in New York in 1700, Iii., 247.
PRIDEAUX. GEX., at Fort Niagara, iii.. 301.
PRIESTLEY, quoted, iii., 203.
PRIGG CASE, THE, iv., 345.
PRINCE GEORGE, FORT, iii., 295.
PRINCE, MARY, denounces Eudicott, ii., 239.
PRINCE (Negro Plot), iii., 225 et seq.
•' PRINCESS," wrecked, ii., 120.
PRINCETON, N. J ., iii., 522, 532 ; battle of, 534 et seq ;
described, 536 ; Congress adjourns to, iv., 89.
'• PRINCETON," explosion on the, iv., 367, note
PRING, MARTIN, voyages of, i., 26(5, 268, 317.
PRINTING-PRESS, the first in Virginia, iii., 77.
PRINTZ, JOHX, Swedish at Christina, i., 470 et seq. ;
ii.. 150, 152, 153, 155.
PRISONERS, treatment of. iii., 537 et seq.
PRISON-SHIPS, iii., 538.
PRITCHARD, COL., captures Jefferson Davis, iv., 600.
Piuv \TEERIXG, iii., 33 : proposal to abolish, iv., 125.
638
INDEX TO THE FOUR VOLUMES.
PRIVATEERS, sent out by Leisler, ill., 20 ; turned
pirates, 111, 112, 418, 022 : American, iv., 193.
PRIVILEGES AND EXEMPTIONS, Charter of in New
Netherland, i., 43'), 448.
PROCLAMATION by the Howes in N. J., iii., 621.
PROCTOR, HENRY, offers premium for scalps, iv., 188,
note ; at battle of Frenchtown, 194 ; burns Mai
den, 199 : his escape, 200.
PROCTOR, COL., at battle of Newtoxvn, iv., 4.
PROTECTIONISTS, convention of, iv., 291.
PROVIDENCE, Island of, iii., 97.
PROVIDENCE, R. ]., ii.. 39, 406.
PROVIDENCE, Maryland. (See Annapolis.)
PROVINCETOWN, Mass., i., 2b'3; Pilgrims at, 387 ft sey.
PROVOOST, DAVID, iii., 232, note.
PROVOOST, BISHOP, inauguration services, iv., 105.
I'UANT INDIANS, ii., 544, note.
" PUBLIC ADVERTISER," London, cited, iii., 416.
PUERCO RIVER, ii.,581.
PULASKI, COUNT, death of, iv., 10.
PULASKI, FORT, reduced, iv., 46(5.
PUMHAM, a sachem, ii., 77 ; in Philip's war, 415.
PUNDERSON, John, of New Haven, ii., 30, note.
PUNISHMENTS, in Conn., ii., 25, 26: in Mass., 65.
PUNTA DE LOS KEYS, La., ii., 586.
PURITANISM, ii., 51 et seq.
PUT-IN BAY, iv., 198.
PUTNAM, ISRAEL, iii., 294; leaves his plough, 395:
commands at Hog Island, 396 ; at Bunker Hill, 398
et seq.; Major-general, 407; at N. Y., 429; forti
fies Governor's Island, 490; at Fishkill, 588.
PUTNAM,' COL. RUFUS, at Dorchester Heights, iii., 426 ;
sent to N. Y., 462; quoted, 491.
PUTNAM, .SERGEANT THOMAS, ii., 456.
PYNCHON, MAJOR, the Mohawks, ii., 442.
PYNCHON, MR., at Springfield, Mass., i., 552.
PYNCHON, WILLIAM, at Springfield, ii., 6, 22, note.
Ql'ACO, (Negro Plot), iii., 229, et seq.
QUAKERS. (See Friends).
QUAPAU INDIANS. (See Arkansas Indians.)
QUARRY, GOVERNOR, ii., 360.
QUEBEC founded, i., 321 ; ii., 332 et se</.; 398, 399;
iii., 304 et seq. ; Arnold's expedition, 441 et seq.
" QUEDAGH MERCHANT," taken by Kidd, iii., 35-3T.
QUEEN'S COUNTY, Long Island, ii., 327
QUEEN'S PROCLAMATION, quoted, iv., 460 note.
QUEENSTOWN, battle of, iv., 190.
QUENTIN, FATHER, i., 323.
QUIBULETOWN, N. .1., iii., 551.
QUIUURI INDIANS, ii., 593.
QUICK, his stable on fire, iii., 227.
QUINCY, JOSIAH, iv., 227.
QUINIPISA INDIANS, ii., 515.
QUIXNIPIACK. (See New Haven.)
QUINTANILLA, ALON7.0 DE, i., 109.
" QUINTIPARTITE AGREEMENT,'' THE, ii., 476.
QUINTON'S BRIDGE, skirmish at, iii., 6uO.
QUIRES INDIANS, ii, 580.
QUIROS, FATHER, i , 221.
QUITMAN, GENERAL, in Mexican war, 372 etseq.
QUIVIRA, Coronado at, ii., 569 : Ruyz at, 578.
Quo WARRANTO against Maryland, "iii., 62; against
South Carolina, 84.
13ABIDA, at Columbus, i., 107.
RADCLIFFE, .IOHN, of Virginia, i., 270 ; hischarges
against \Vingtield, 277 ; sent to Point Comfort,
292, 294 ; death of, 295.
RAFN, PROF. C. C., on the Northmen, i.,40.
RAUL, COLONEL, at N. Y., iii., 493,514 ; at Trenton,
525; killed, 530.
RAILROADS, first, iv.. 314 ; to the Pacific, 402.
RAINS, GEN., iv., 455.
RALEIGH, SIR WALTER,!., 235.240; his expeditions,
241, 256 : names Virginia, 245 ; first colony, 246,
251 ; execution, 247 : fights against Spanish Ar
mada, 253: his patent, 258 ; letters of , 259, note,
262 ; introduces tobacco at court, 301.
RAMSAY, COLONEL, at Mnmnourh, iii., 605.
RAMUSIO, publishes (Jabot's Discourse, 1., 131 ; let
ters of Verrazano, 176 ; on Verrazano's death,
180.
RANDALL'S ISLAND, iii., 493.
RANDOLPH, SURVEYOR-GENERAL, iii., 121.
RANDOLPH, EDMUND, proposes Virginia plan, iv., 101.
RANDOLPH, EDWARD, ii.,3S4, 393,428.
RANDOLPH, HENRY, ii., 225.
RANDOLPH, JOHN, denounces domestic slave trade,
iv., 261 : raises the slavery question, 284
RANSOM, CAPTAIN, iii., 546.
RANTERS, not Friends, ii., 174, 175
RAPPAHAMNOCK, early mission on, i., 222.
RARITAN INDIANS, on Staten Island: i., 451 ; ii., 465.
RAKITAN RIVER, ii., 321.
RASIERRES, ISAAC DE, at Plymouth, i., 427.
RASLE, SEBASTIAN, iii., 193" et seq.
RAVENSHURG, witchcraft trials in, ii., 451.
RAWDON, LORD, in command at Camden, iv., 34;
sails for England and is captured, 62.
RAWLING, COLONEL, iii. ,517.
RAWLINS, AARON, his heroism, iii. ,193.
RAWSON, EDWARD, Mass , ii., 102 ; warrant signed,
187 ; Mary Wright, 191.
RAYNAL, ABBE, his prophecy, iv., 163.
RAYNOR, KENNETH, quoted, iv., 407 : his Union pledge,
417 : on Missouri Compromise, 418
RAYSTOWN, Iii., 300.
READ, COL. CHARLES, iii., 527, note.
READ, JOSEPH, iii., 232, note.
REALF, RICHARD, Brown's Sec. of State, iv., 429.
RECONSTRUCTION, iv., 600.
RECOVERY, FORT, iv. , 117.
RED BANK, N. J., iii., 562.
RED FEATHER COMPANY, THE, iii., 533.
RED HOOK occupied, iii., 490.
RED RIVER, ii., 521 ; trading-posts on, 533.
RED RIVER EXPEDITION, Banks's, iv., 567.
RED SEA [Gulf of California], ii., 566.
REED, ADJ. -GEN. JOSEPH, iii., 496, 526.
REED, COLONEL, of Massachusetts, iii., 513.
REED, PRESIDENT, Arnold's allusion to, iv., 18.
REEDER, A. H., Governor of Kansas, 509 rt ,iey.
REHOBOTH. Mass., attacked, ii., 406.
REID. SAMUEL C., iv., 224.
" RUNDEER,"' THE, captured, iv., 224.
RELIGION, legislation on, iii., 66, 82.
RELIGIOUS AWAKENIM; IN NEW ENGLAND, iii., 202.
RELIGIOUS MOVEMENTS IN VIRGINIA, iii., 77.
RELIGIOUS TOLERATION, Mass., iii., 135 et stq., 488.
RE.MEDIOS, a mission in Arizona, ii., 596.
REMOVALS FROM OFFICE, iv., 297.
REMUND, JAN VAN, secretary, i., 435.
RENKOKUS CREEK, N. J., ii., 474
RENO, JESSE L., in Roanoke Expedition, iv., 462;
killed. 501.
RENSSELAER, JEREMIAS VAN, ii., 320.
RENSSELAER, JOHAN VAN, patroon, ii., 128.
RENSSKLAER, KII.IAEN VAN, patroon, i., 432 it x<q.
RENSSELAERSWYCK in New Netherland, i., 432 ; Indian
policy at, ii., 233.
REPUBLICAN PARTY, formation of, iv., 421.
REPUBLICAN PRINCIPLES in N. Y., iii., V53.
RESACA, DE LA PALMA, battle of, iv., 370.
RESACA, battle of. iv., 580.
RESOLUTIONS, the Virginia and Kentucky, iv., 130.
REVENUE, surplus, iv., 305; divided, 312.
REVERE, PAUL, his ride, iii., 383-385.
REVOLUTION, beginning of the, iii , 378.
REYNOLDS, GEN. JOHN, at Chanccllorsville, iv., 549;
killed at Gettysburg, 553.
RHEA, J.,iv., 253,257.
RHETT, on disunion, iv., 340.
RIIETT, WILLIAM, iii., 85,98.
RHODE ISLAND, the Northmen in, i., 41 ; its name,
359; ii., 38 et seq.; Mass, and, 48 et seq.; confed
eracy, 50 : charters, 99 et seq. ; General Assembly
of, 104 ; war, 143 ; on Friends, 186 et seq. ; proposal
to annex to N. Y., iii., 9 ; withstands Phips, 27 ;
boundaries, 112, 116 : under Bellomont, 111 : char
ter, 117,119: declares independence, 478 : hercon-
stitution, 487 ; battle of, 607 et seq. ; the Dorr war
in, iv., 366.
RIALL, GEN., retreats to Burlington, iv., 211.
RIHAULT, JOHN, in America, i , 190, 194, 204 ; murder
of, 21 1.
RICE introduced into Carolina, ii., 369.
RICHARDS, JOHN, of Mass , ii.,386.
RICHARDS, MAJOR, ii., 442.
RICHARDSON, GEN., iv , 477.
RICHELIEU RIVER, i., 321.
RICHMOND, Vs., made capital of confederacy. IT.,
INDEX TO THE FOUR VOLUMES.
639
449; panic in. 471; strength of defences, 589;
abandoned by the rebels, 590.
" RICHMOND," THE, at New Orleans, iv., 527.
RICHMOND HILL, Hi., 495.
RICK, BARON vox, in Ga., Hi., 151.
RICKETTS, CAPTAIN, at Bull Run, iv., 453.
RIDGEFIELD, Ooiiii., Hi., 547.
RIDINGS (Long Island and vicinity), ii., 327.
RIEDESEL, BARON, Hi., 454 et seq.
RIGAUD, Hi., 292.
RIGG, AMBROSE, of East Jersey, ill., 6, note.
RIGHT OF SEARCH, abuse of. iv., 131.
RILEV, GEN., in Mexico, iv., 378; in California, 389.
RINGMANN, MATHIAS, edits letter of Vespucci, i.. 124.
Rio DE JANEIRO, Huguenot colony on, i., 189.
Rio GRANDE, posts on, ii., 598, 599
RIOTS in Boston, Hi., 357, 359, 362, note
RIPLEY, GEN., at Lundy's Lane, iv., 213
RITZEMA, COLONEL, Hi-, 515.
RIVER OP Cows, THE, ii., 5S3.
RIVER OP DOLPHINS, i., 205, 208, 213: Sir Francis
Drake on, 222.
RIVINGTON'S Gazetteer, ill., 459.
ROANOKE EXPEDITION, iv.. 462.
ROANOKE, ISLAND, i., 243, 244; White's colony on, 254.
ROANOKE RIVER, ii , 270
ROBBINS, LIEUT., his last shot, Hi., 196.
ROBERTSON, GENERAL, Hi., 493.
ROBERVAL, i., 187 ; reaches America, 188.
ROBINSON, BEVERLEY, his connection with Arnold's
treason, iv., 19 ; urges Vermont to return to her
allegiance, 81.
ROBINSON, CHARLES, house burned, 412 ; elected Gov
ernor of Kansas, 414.
ROBINSON, RBV JOHN, pastor at Leyden, i , 379 ; fare
well sermon, 385; letter on fight with Indians,
409 ; death, 417 : on the Indians, ii., 2
ROBINSON, JOHN, of Va., Hi., 78.
ROBINSON, WILLIAM, a friend, ii., 1%, 190 et seq.
ROBYN'S KIFT, in Staten Island Kills, i , 351.
ROCHAMBEAU, iii., 355, note ; arrives at Newport, iv.,
16 ; at Hartford, 21 ; at Wcthersfield, 65 ; marches
on New York, 65
ROCHEBLAVE, Gov., Hi. 611.
ROCHELLK, Huguenots from, i., 245.
ROOHEMOR.E, in Louisiana, ii., 552.
ROCHESTER, ROBERT, at Scrooby, i., 376.
ROOKINGHAM, MARQUIS OF, Hi. ,346: his administra
tion formed, iv. , 75 : his death, 76.
ROCKY BROOK, the French at, Hi., 288
ROCKY MOUNT, Sumter's attack on, iv , 31.
ROCROFT, ('APT., voyage of, i., 331.
RODGERS, CAPT., service in the Mediterranean, iv.,
lot) ; cruise in the President, iv., 191.
RODNEY, ADMIRAL, arrives at Newport, iv., 16 ; sends
a force to pursue De Grasse, 70.
RODNEY, CAPT. THOMAS, Hi , 533, 536, note.
RODRIGO, Portuguese geographer, i., 96.
ROGERS, MOSES, iv., 275, 276.
ROGERS, MAJ. ROBERT, at Ticonderoga, Hi., 297; St.
Francis, 303 ; Detroit, 312 ; Bloody Bridge, 320.
ROGERS, SAMUEL, on Oglethorpe, Hi", 166.
ROGERS, CAPT WOODES, Hi., 97.
ROGUE, HENRY, at Edinburgh, ii., 172, note.
ROI.FE, JOHN, at the Bermudas, i., 294 : marries Poca-
hontas, 303: the first tobacco planter, 303.
ROLLE, MR., ii., 564.
ROMANS, BERNARD, Hi., 432. 433, note.
ROMME, JOHN (Negro Plot). Hi., 226 ft seq.
ROMNEY (Adventure galley), Hi., 34.
RONDOUT, N. Y., town of. ii., 235.
ROOME, JOHN, ii., 113, note.
ROOSEVELT (Negro Plot), iii , 328.
ROOT, MR., his resolution, iv., 391.
ROSALIE, post on the Mississippi, ii., 542.
" ROSE,'' THE, an English frigate, ii., 393
" ROSE," THE (man-of-war), Hi., 359.
ROSE AND CROWN TAVERN, Hi., 493. note.
ROSECRANS, WM. S., in command of Department
of West Virginia, iv., 515 ; succeeds Buell, 532 ;
at Corinth, 534: at Murfreesborough, 535: ma
noeuvres Bragg out of Chattanooga, 560 ; at Chick-
amauga, 561 ; superseded by Thomas, 563.
Ross, GEN., his expedition against Washington, iv.,
217 et seq. • killed. 222.
ROSSISNOL, CAPT.. ship confiscated, i.. 313.
ROSSITER, EDWARD, of Dorchester, i., 531, 532.
ROTTEN BOROUGHS, Hi., 346, note.
Rous, JOHN, a Quaker, ii., 187.
ROUVILLE, attack on Deerfield, Hi., 122.
ROWAN, S. C., in Roanoke Expedition, iv., 462.
ROWLANDSON, MRS., taken prisoner, ii., 414.
ROWLS, signs Wheelwright deed, ii., 436.
ROXBURY, Mass., settled, i., 532.
" ROYAL CHARLES," THE, ii., 330.
RUDYARD, THOMAS, of East Jersey, Hi., 6, note, 9.
RUFFIN, EDMUND, iv., 446
RUGGLES, OEN. TIMOTHY, President of the Continental
Congress, Hi., 340 ; in command of Tories in Bos
ton, 395-
RULE, MARGARET, ii., 460.
RUNAWIT, signs Wheelwright deed, ii., 436.
RUSCOMBE, Penn's estate in England, Hi., 184.
RUSH, DR. BENJAMIN, iii., 471,
RUSSELL, EARL, on the Trent affair, iv., 460 ; de
clines Napoleon's overtures, 513.
RUSSELL, JONATHAN, as peace commissioner, iv., 209
RUSSELL, MR., conceals Goffe, ii., 410.
RUSSIAN GOVERNMENT, offers mediation, iv., 209.
RUST-DORP. (See Jamaica.)
RUT, JOHN, voyage of, i., 226, note, 310.
RUTGERS, ANTHONY, iii., 232, note.
RUTLEDGE, EDWARD, iii., 512; convenes the S. C.
Legislature, iv., 64.
RUTLEDGE, JOHN, of S. C., iii., 468.
RUYTER, ADMIRAL DE, ii , 330.
RUYVEN, CORNELIS VAN, 11., 250, 351.
RUYZ, AUGUSTIN, expedition of, ii., 578.
RYE BEACH, N. H., ii., 447.
RYSINGH, JOHN, ii., 155, 156, 160.
RYSWICK, PEACE OF, ii., 449 ; Hi., 122.
CABBATII-DAY POINT, Lake George, skirmish
0 near, iii., 292.
SABINO, Popham colony at, i., 319.
SABLE ISLAND, attempt to colonize, i., 175: French
colony on, 312.
SACHEM'S HEAD, Guilford, Conn., U., 15.
SACHEM'S PLAIN, Norwich, Conn., ii., 96, and note.
SACKETT'S IlARnou,battlc at, iv., 1!.'7.
SACO, Maine, settled, i., 330 ; attacked, ii., 439.
SACO RIVER, entered by Champlain, i., 314.
SACONONOCO, a sachem, Ii., 77 et seq.
SACS AND FOXES, treaty with, iv. , 295.
SAGADAHOC RIVER, Maine, i., 319, 336 ; H., 374, 435.
SAG HARBOR, Meigs's expedition to, 111., 548.
SAGUENAY RIVER, discovered by Cartier, 1., 183.
SAINT ANDREW'S SOUND, Hi., 159.
SAINT AUGUSTINE, Florida, founded, 1., 213 ; 11., 362,
555 et seq.; 561, 563 et seq.; Hi., 81.
" SAINT BENINIO," a Dutch vessel, ii., 125.
SAINT BERNARD, Texas, ii., 517.
SAINT BRANDON, mythical island of , i., 13.
SAINT CATHERINE'S ISLAND, 111., 167.
SAINT CHARLES BAY, Hi., 446.
SAINT CHARLES RIVER, Cartier on, i., 186; ill., 304.
SAINT CLAIR, GEN. ARTHUR. Hi., 252,450; sent to N.
J., 521; at Trenton, 529; quoted, 532, note; at
Ticonderoga, 571 ; court-martialled, 573, note ; hU
expedition, iv., 115.
SAINT CLEMENT'S ISLAND named, 1., 492.
SAINT CHOIX ISLAND, French colony on, i., 314; de
stroyed by Argall, 327.
SAINT CROIX RIVER, i., 183 : French fort on, 188.
SAINT DENIS, HUCHEREAU, H., 599.
SAINT DIE, college at, i., 124.
SAINT FREDERICK, FORT, iii., 283, 284.
SAINT GEORGE'S ISLAND, Maine, i., 319.
SAINT GEORGE'S RIVER, Maine, i., 316; 11., 435.
SAINT HELENA, ii., 556, 558.
SAINT ILDEFONSO, treaty of, Iv., 145.
SAINT II.LA RIVER, in Florida, i., 215.
SAINT INIGOE'S, Maryland, i , 512.
SAINT JOHN'S, Newfoundland, i.. 236 ; Arnold at,
iii., 437 et seq. : Burgoyne's army at, 568.
SAINT JOHN'S BLUFF, Florida, i , 198.
SAINT JOHN'S ISLAND, discovered, i., 132, 133.
SAINT JOHN'S RIVER, Florida, i., 191 ; 11., 26«.
SAINT JOSEPH, ii., 510, 516
SAINT JOSEPH, FORT, Hi., 256, 321.
SAINT LAWRENCE, GULF OF, i., 175.
SAINT LAWRENCE RIVER, explored by Cartier, i., 182
640
INDEX TO THE FOUR VOLUMES.
SAINT LEGER, LIEUT. -COL. BARRY, on the Mohawk,
iii., 567, 576 ; at Oriskany, 57S.
SAINT Louis, Mo., in the civil war, iv., 454 tl seq.
SAINT Louis, in Texas, 11., 618.
SAINT LOUSSON, M. HE, II., 502.
SAINT MARKS, seized by Jackson, Iv., 253.
SAINT MARTIN, attacked, Ii., 115.
SAINT MARY'S, Maryland, I., 497 ; first capital of
Maryland, ii., 214, 217.
SAINT MARY'S RIVER, Md., i., 495.
SAINT MARY'S KIVER, F'la., ii., 557.
SAINT MICHAEL, Culiacan, ii , 5ti7.
SAINT OSITH'S, witch trials at, ii., 452.
SAINT PATRICK, legend of, i., 36.
ST. PHILIP, FORT, British fail to pass, Iv., 236 : 526.
SAINT SAUVEUR, Mount Desert, i., 324.
SAINT SIMON'S (New Brunswick), ii., 5(53.
SAINT SIMON'S, ISLAND OF, Ga., Iii., 155.
SAINT THOMAS, legend of, I. ,36 ; monastery, 79.
SALABERRY, defeats Hampton;' Iv., 2(12.
SALAMANCA, Council of, i., 108.
SALAS, iv., 141.
SALEM (on the Delaware), ii., 476.
SALEM, Mass., witchcraft at, ii., 45(i t-t seq. : first
blood of the Revolution shed at, ill., 3/8 ; privateer
fleet of, 623 ; decadence of, iv., 245.
SALEM, N. .1., skirmish at, iii , 600.
SALEM CREEK, Delaware, ii., 153.
SALINGBURG. (See Sorubiero.)
SALISBURY, iv., 588.
SALMON L'ALLS, N. II., attacked, ii., 447.
SALTONSTALL, RICHARD, in witch trials, ii., 459.
SALTONSTALL, COMMODORE, iii., 617.
SALVATIBRRA, FATHER, ii., 588.
SALZBURG, LEOPOLD, Archbishop of, iii., 149.
SAL/BURGERS, THE, iii., 148 et seq.
SAMOSET sells lands, i., 335 ; visits Plymouth, 400.
SAN ANTONIO, Texas, ii., 600.
SAN ANTONIO DE VALERO, in Texas, ii., 600.
SANCHEZ, ALONZO, voyage of, i., 100.
SANDUUKEN, Pel., ii., 153.
SANDIFORD, an early abolitionist, iii., 177.
SANDOVAL, of Texas, ii., 601.
SANDUSKY, FORT, iii., 255-257, 321.
SANDYS, SIR EDWIN, treasurer of Virginia Company , i .
305; assists the Puritans, 381.
SANDYS, GEORGE, of Virginia Company, ii., 202.
SANFORD, .)OHN, ii., 44. note.
SANFORD, MR., iv., 425.
SANFORD, SARAH, treatment in New Orleans, iv., 530.
SANFORD, SENATOR, iv., 269.
SAN FRANCISCO, Cal., ii., 575 et seq.
SAN JACINTO, Texas, battle of, iv., 362.
" SAN JACINTO," THE overhauls the Trent, iv., 4'!0.
SAN MATEO, Spanish fort in Florida, i., 218.
SIN RAFAEL DE ACTUN, ii ,593.
SAN SABA, Texas, ii., 6' >2.
SAN SALVADOR, first land seen by Columbus, i., 113.
SANTA ANNA, captured, I v., 368 ; returns to Mexico,
and assumes chief command, 371.
SANTA BARBARA, Mexico, ii., 578, 583.
SANTA Ffc, New Mexico, ii., 583 : occupied by U. S.
forces, iv., 372.
SANTANGEL, Luis DK, i., 109.
SANTA ROSA, island of, ii., 522.
SAMITE (an Indian), iii.. 95.
SAN XAVIER DEL BAC, mission of, ii., 595.
SAPEI.O ISLAND, iii., l')7
SARATOGA, Indian atrocities at, iii., 251.
" SARATOGA," THE, .it Plattsburg, iv., 215.
SASSACUS, a sachem, ii , 4, 16.
SATOURIONA, Indian chief in Florida, i., 197 ; wel
comes Do Gourgues, 21<i.
S \UGATUOK RIVER, iii.. 547.
SAULT STE. MARIE, ii.. 502 ; iii., 256.
SAIINDERS, ADMIRAL, iii., 304.
SAUSAMON (,)OHN). (See Wussausnion.)
SAVAGE, THOMAS, ii., 44, note.
SXVAGK, MR., eulogizes lirooks, iv., 421.
SWAGE'S STATION, battle of, iv., 483.
SAVANNAH, Ga., iii , 144 ; captured, 613 ; summoned
to surrender by D'Estaing, iv.,9; assaulted by the
American and French forces, 10 ; evacuated by the
British, 83 ; captured by Sherman, 586.
" S \V\NNAH," voyage of the, iv., 276.
SAXTON, liUFUs, in South Carolina, iv.,467.
SAY AND SEAL, LORD, ii.,5, 31 ; patent, 255.
SAYBROOK, Fort at, ii., 5 : colony at, 31 ; iii., 4.
SAYLE, WM., of Carolina, ii., 281.
SCALPS, bounty offered for, iii., 124 ; iv., 188.
SCAMMELL, Coi.., iii., 584.
SCARSDALE, Hi., 514.
SCHENECTADY, ii., 245, 343, 332 , massacre at, iii.,
19.
SCIILOSSER, ENSIGN, at St. Joseph, iii., 321.
SCHOFIELD, GEN. JOHN M., in Arkansas, iv., 542; in
Atlanta campaign, 579 et seq.
SCHOODIC RIVER. (Sec, St. Croix.)
SCHOOL-HOUSE, first west of the Hudson, iii., 243.
SCHOOLS established in Md., iii., 67 ; in S. C.,l<i4;
lands given for, iv., 168.
SCIIUTE, SWEN, at Fort Trinity, ii., 158.
SCHUYLER, FORT, iii., 576.
SCHUYLER, ADONIAH, iii., 232, note.
SCHUYLER, PETER, at Albany, iii., 17, 19; on the
Mohawk, 29 ; goes to Kngland with chiefs, 44.
SCHUYLER, PHILIP, at Oswvgo, iii., 290: appointed
Maj.-gen., 407; his expedition against Canada, 439
ft seq. ; takes command of the Northern Depart
ment, 571 : court-martialled, 573, note ; reinstated,
583 ; opinion of the Vermontese, iv., 82.
SCHUYLKILL RIVER, ii., 150, 151.
" SCIOTO," THE, at New Orleans, iv., 529.
SCITUATE, Mass., Indian attack on. ii.. 415.
SCOTCH PRESBYTERIANS, in N. 11., iii , 138.
SCOTT, FORT, iv., 249.
SCOTT, GKN CHARLES, iv., 115.
SCOTT, JOHN, ii., 257 et seq.
SCOTT, ('APT. JOHN, iii., 116.
SCOTT, GEN. JOHN MORIN. iii , 458, 495, 544.
SCOTT, LIEUT., his party massacred, iv., 250.
SCOTT, PATIENCE, at Boston, Ii., 190.
SCOTT, SIR WALTER, ill., 618.
SCOTT, WINFIKLD, at Queenstown, iv., 190 ; at l.un-
dy's Lane, 212 : in Black Hawk war, 295 ; goes to
Charleston, 308 i commands in Florida. 352 ; sent
to Canadian frontier in 1837,355 ; in Mexican war,
373 et seq. : nominated for President, 403 ; in the
civil war, 451 et seq.
SCOTTISH emigrants to N. C., iii.j 464.
SCRIVENER, of Virginia, i., '290.
SriiooiiY, home of separatists, i., 372, 374.
•• SKA ADVENTURE," wreck of, i , 292.
SEGURA, JOHN BAPTIST, missionary, i., 220.
SEAL of New England, iii., 8, 9.
SEAL of New York, broken, iii., 11.
SEARS, ISAAC, iii., 456, 458 et seq.
SECESSION of Southern States, iv., 440, 448, note.
SEDDON, JAMES A., iv., 585.
SEDGWICK, MAJOR, ii., 148.
SEDGWICK, member of Congress, iv., 261.
SEDOWICK, GEN. JOHN, in peninsular campaign, iv.,
476 ft seq.; at Chancellorsville, 548; in overland
campaign, iv., 571 et seq. ; killed, 574.
SEEKONK, Mass., attack on, ii., 415.
SEDKONK RIVER, R. I., ii , 406.
SEKI.V, CAPTAIN, killed, ii., 413.
SEIGNELAY, MARQUIS DE, ii., 510, 516.
SBLDEN, CAPTAIN, quoted, iii.. 596, note.
SELDEN, JOHN, on -witchcraft, ii., 452.
SUI.OOE, an Indian chief in Florida, I., 213.
SEMINOLE W.\u, first, Iv., 246; second, iv., 350.
SENECA CASTLE, iv., 6.
SEXF.CV INDIANS, at war in Va., ii., 294 : join Ponfiac,
Iii., 313.
SEQUASSON, a sachem, ii., 94.
"SERAPIS," captured, iii., 620.
SBRIGNY, a l.rolher of Bienville, ii., 524.
SEVEN CITIES, OR SEVEN BISHOPS, island of, i., 13,
35.
SEVEN PINES, battle of, iv., 475.
SEVENTH N. Y. REGIMENT, iv., 447.
SEVERN, RIVER, battle, ii., 217 et seq.
SEW ALL, Chief Justice of Mass., iii., 332.
SEWALI, , MR., in first Colonial Congress, iii., 20.
SEWAUD, WM. II., in controversy with Southern Gov
ernors, iv., 340, 341 ; becomes leader in the Sen
ate, 392 ; his higher law, 398 ; his estimate of the
Sonth's confidence in him, 436; argument on the
Trent affair, 461 ; offers to re-ign his Secretary -
shipv511 ; attempted assassination, 599.
SEYMOUR, Attorney-general, iii., 59.
INDEX TO THE FOUR VOLUMES.
(.41
SEYMOUR, HORATIO, his address to rioters, iv., 560.
SEYMOUR, RICHARD, I., 318.
SMACKAMAXON, scene of Peun's treaty, ii., 493.
SHADES OF DEATH, THE, iii., 265.
SHADRACH, case of, iv., 3b9.
SHAFTESIIURY, EARL OF, ii., 269, 287.
" SHANNON," THE, captures the Chesapeake, iv., 206.
SHANNON, WILSON, Governor of Kansas, iv., 411.
SHAPLEY, CAPT., at Fort Trumbull, iv., 68.
SHARP, a Catholic, at Albany, iii., 17.
SlIARPSllURG, iv"., 501.
SHATTOCK, SAMUEL, and the Friends, ii., 186, 197.
SHAW, COL. ROBERT G., commands 54th Massachu
setts, and falls at Fort Wagner, iv., 544.
SHAWNOES, THE, iii., 258.
SHAWOMET, ii., 71, note, 74 ; named Warwick, 98, 99.
SHAYS'S REBELLION, iv., 97.
SHEAFFK, ROGER, iv., 196.
SHEARMAN, PHILIP, ii.,44, note.
SHEK, COL., iii., 518.
SiiEi.iiUR.NE, KARL OF, iii., 289, 351, 600. Colonial
Secretary, iv., 75 ; First Lord of the Treasury, 76.
SHKI.BV, Coi... at King's Mountain, iv., 38.
SHELDON, COL., in command at Lower Salem, iv., 19.
SHELL-HEAPS, i., 14.
SHELTER ISLAND, claimed by Farrett, ii.,34.
SIIKN VNDOAH VALLEY, iii., 74, 77.
SHEPHERD, COL., iii., 513.
SHERKURNE, M.u., surrenders, iii., 449.
SHERIDAN, GEN. P. II., at Chattanooga, iv., 565 ; in
Western Virginia, 593 ; at Winchester and Fisher's
Hill, 594 ; his ride, 595 ; at Five Forks, 596.
SHERMAN, CAPT. ISAAC, iii., 533.
SHERMAN, ROGER, of committee to draft declaration,
iii., 4*3.
SHERMAN, THOMAS W., commands Port Royal expedi
tion, iv., 45n.
SHERMAN. WM. T., sent to California, iv., 373; at
Hull Run, 452: at Shiloh, 523 ; at Vicksburg. 538
it .11 1/. : at Kurt Hinduism, 540; relieves Knoxville,
5*>4 ; Mi-rMian expedition, 566 ; his Atlanta cam
paign, 57'.l ft sri/. : march to the sea, 584 el ne</. ;
captures Johnston, 599.
SHKWKIRK, PASTOR, ({noted, iii., 511.
SHIELDS, GEN., in .Mexico, iv., 379.
SHILOH, battle of, iv., 522.
SHIPPE.N, EDWARD, iv., 17.
SHIRLEY, WM., of Muss., iii., 202; Louisburg expe
dition, 2(W : the mob, 220 ; at Niagara, 282 et seq.
SHOALS, JSLES OK, ii., 425 et seq.
SHORKHAM, Vt., iii., 4o4.
SHORTIIEDGE and his daughter, iii., 199.
SHOTTON, SAMPSON, of Gorton party, ii., 75, note.
SHOVEL, SIR CLOUDESLEY, ii., 517, note.
SHREVE, COL., iv., at Springfield, 15.
SHREVEPORT, iv., 567.
SHREWSBURY (the Ail venture galley), iii., 33.
SHUTE, SAMUEL, Governor of Mass., iii., 128 ; conten
tions with the General Court, 130 ; sails for Eng
land. 134 ; in N. II., 133; goes to England, 139 ; re
tires from, office, 2(iii.
SICACHA INDIANS, ii., 513.
SICKLES, GEN. DANIEL E., at Chaucellorsville, iv.,
546 ; at Gettvsburg, 552 tt seq.
SIDNEY, SIR HENRY, i., 227, 230, note, 235.
SIERRI. NEVADA MOUNTAINS, pictures on, i., 62.
SIGEL, GKN. KRVNZ, bis command in Missouri, iv..
455 ; succeeds Fremont, 492.
SILLIMAN, GKN. G. S., iii., 505, 547.
SIMCOE, LIEUT.-COL., his Rangers, iii., 559: in Vir
ginia, iv., 50 (t seq.
SIMCOE, Gov., campaign in Ohio, iv., 117.
SIMMS, THOS. M., iv., 399.
SIMPSON, LIEUTENANT, account of Inscription Rock,
ii., 584, 5%, and note.
Sioux INDIANS, ii., 500.
Six NATIONS, iii., 48; treaties with, in Va., 74, 250
(see also Five Nations) ; Sullivan's expedition
against, iv., 2 ; th,-ir thrift, 5.
SIX-TOWN POINT, N. V'., iii., 289..
SKELTO.N, REV. MR., at Salem, i., 521, 541.
SKENE, MAJOR, iii., 434, 436, 580.
SKENESBOROUGH, Yt., iii., 434-573.
SKITWARROES, a Maine Indian, i., 318.
SKOLNUS, the Pole, i., 139.
SKR^ELLINGS, Indians of the Northmen, i., 44,52
vol.. iv. 41
SKULLS, FOSSIL, the Calaveras, i., 17 ; the Nean
derthal and Dorreby, 33 ; from mounds, 33.
SLADE, \\"M., iv., 339.
SLATE KOCK (Providence 11. I.), ii., 89, 51.
SLATER, SAMUEL, iv., 314.
SLAVERY, in Va., ii., 225 ; in New Netherland, 245 ;
in New York, iii.', 4 ; in Ga., 153 ; in Penn., 175,
177 ; opposition to, iv., 109 ; the question of ex
tension, 2(32 et set]. ; the question raised by Ran-
dolph, 284.
SLAVES, importation of to S. 0., iii., 108; in the
Territories, 390 ; the clergy on, 398 ; rendition of
by the British, iv., 241.
SLAVE-TRADE, paragraph on, in the Declaration of
Independence, iii., 485 ; domestic, iv., 261.
SLECHTENHORST, BRANDT VAN, ii., 128, 129 et sen.
SI.EM.MER, ADAM J., holds 1'ensacola, iv., 441.
SLIDELL, JOHN, on the Sunnier affair, iv., 420; taken
from the Trent, 459.
SLOCUM, GEN. HENRY W., at Chancellorsville, iv.,
546 ; in march to the sea, 585 tt seq.
SLOPER, WILLIAM, iii., 143, note.
SLOUGUTER, COL. HENRY, of N. Y., iii., 21 et seq.
SMALL-POX in Mass., iii., 127, 428.
SMALLWOOD'S REGIMENT, iii., 404, 515, 544 ; at Ger-
mantown, 559.
SMITH, a New York lawyer, iii., 230, note.
SMITH, opposes the Constitution, iv., 103.
SMITH, LIEUT. -COL., of Baltimore, at Fort Minliti,
iii. ,562.
SMITH, COL., iii., 383, 386.
SMITH, ({EN. A. J., in Red River expedition, iv., 567.
SMITH, GEN. CHARLES F., death of, iv., 522.
SMITH, GERRIT, anti-slavery society at his house,
iv.,330.
SMITH, (!. W., at Seven Pines, iv., 475.
SMITH, HENRY, ii., 22, note.
.SMITH, JOHN', the Separatist, i., 376, 379.
SMITH, JOHN, ii., 113, note.
SMITH, .Ions, of Naiitucket, iii., 2, note.
SMITH, CAPT. JOHN, i., 258 ; at Jamestown, 269, 270 ;
liis charges against Wingfield, 277: made prisoner,
280; Pocahontas, 282; his history, 283; trial of,
285: Chesajieake Bay, 287: in England, 295; in
New Kngland, 327: friend of Hudson, 345; on
Isles of Shoals, ii., 425.
SMITH, CAPT. JOHN, at Guilford Court House, iv.,
47.
SMITH, JOSEPH, iv., 427.
SMITH, JOSHUA HF.TT, his connection with Arnold's
plot, iv., 21.
SMITH, GEN. KIRHY, at Knoxville, iv., 630 ; in Ten
nessee, 533
SMITH, LIEUT.-COL. MATTHEW, of Va., iii., 561.
SMITH, REV. RALPH, i., 52(1, 521.
SMITH, SAMUEL, iii., 143, note.
SMITH, SAMUEL, in command at Baltimore, iv., 222.
SMITH, THOMAS, trial of, i., 507.
SMITH, THOMAS, of Carolina, ii.. 36$.
SMITH, SIR THOMAS, treasurer of Virginia Company,
i., 305; in its council, 481.
SMITH, WILLIAM, iii., 526, note.
SMITH POINT, Maryland, i., 491.
SMUTTY NOSE (Isles of Shoals), ii., 426.
SNORRI, first European child born in North America,
i., 54.
SNOW HILL, battle of, iii ,93.
SNYDER BOY, killed, iii., 363, note.
SOCIETY FOR THE PROPAGATION OF CHRISTIAN KNOWL
EDGE, iii., 150.
SODERINI, letter from Vespucci to. i., 126.
SOLDIERS, quartering of, iii., 352, 355.
SOLF.BAY, battle of, ii., 347.
SOLID SOUTH, iv., 242, 287.
Soi.is, a navigator, i., 142.
SOLIS, ANTONIO DE, in Sonora,ii.. 592.
SOMES'S SOUND, Me., i., 325 ; Argall lands at. 327.
,SOMERS ISLANDS, THE, i., 294.
SOMERS, SIR GEORGE, patent to, i., 267 ; in Virginia,
292; shipwrecked, 292.
SOMERS, LORD, his answer to Mather and Phips, iii.,
26; Adventure galley, 33 ; prosecuted, 36.
SOMERS, RICHARD, iv., 160.
SOMERSET COURT-HOUSE, N. J., iii., 535.
SOMERVII.I.E, Mass.. Hi., 394.
SONMANS, ARENT, of East Jersey, iii., 6, note.
642
INDEX TO THE FOUR VOLUMES.
SONOMA, Cal., meeting of settlers at, iv., 373.
SONORA (Arizona), ii., 588, 589.
SONS OF LIBERTY, 343 et seq., 456.
" SORLINGS,-' THE, frigate, ii., 449.
SORUBIERO, MARGARET (Negro Plot), iii., 225 et seq.
SOTHELL, SETH, of North Carolina, ii., 287 e,t seq. ; in
South Carolina, 365 ft seq.
SOTO, HERNANDO DE. (See De Soto.)
SOUTH AMERICAN STATES, congress of. iv., 283.
SOUTHAMPTON INSURRECTION, THE, Iv., 319.
SOUTHAMPTON, EARL OP, i., 262; treasurer of Virginia
Company, 477.
SOUTHARD, SAMUEL L., iv., 278, note.
SOUTH CAROLINA, her public debt, iii., 81 ; parties
in, 82 ; her charter, 84 ; Indian war in, 95 ; public
debt increased, 100 ; revolution in, 101 ; duties on
imports repealed, 97, 100 ; a royal province, 103 ;
religious condition of in 1720, 1<;4 ; schools in, 104 ;
population in 1730. 107 : division of land in, 108 ;
slave insurrection in, 157 ; adopts a provisional
Constitution, 477 ; prepares for war, 466 ; adopts
a State Constitution, 487, 488.
SOUTHEBY, WILLIAM, abolitionist, iii., 177.
SOUTHERLAND, LIEUTENANT, iii., 162.
SOUTHERN STATES, condition of at close of Revolu
tion, iv.,91.
SOUTHERTOWN, Conn., iii., 114, 119.
SOUTH HAMPTON, ii., 34, 35 ; land grants, 331.
SOUTH KINGSTON, K. 1., fort at, ii., 412, 413.
SOUTH MOUNTAIN, battle of, iv., 501.
SOUTHOLD, ii., 35 ; land grants, 331.
SOUTH RIVKR. (See Delaware.)
SOUTH SEA BUBBLE, THE, iii., 130.
SOUTHWICK, CASSANDRA, a Friend, ii., 186.
SOUTHWICK, DANIEL, sold as slave, ii., 189.
SOUTHWICK, JOSIAII, whipped, ii., 195,
SOUTHWICK, LAWRENCK, imprisoned, ii., 186.
SOUTHWICK, PROVIDED, sold as slave, ii.. 189.
SOUTRE, LE, French priest, iii., 274.
SOWAMES. (See Harrington, R. I.)
SPAIN, during the Revolution, iii. ,546; her designs
on the Western States, iv.. 137 et seq.
SPALDING, MR., ii , 564.
SPANIARDS incite Indians and slaves to war in Geor
gia and Carolina, iii., 157.
SPEAR, MAJOR, at Brandywine, iii., 554.
SPKCHT, GENERAL, iii., 568 d. set/.
SPECIAL PROVIDENCES, ii., 54 et seq.
SPECIE sent to Boston, Hi., 217.
SPECIE PAYMENTS suspended, iv., 244.
SPECULATION, era of, iv., 336.
" SPEEDWELL/' THE, i., 385, 386.
SPENCER, GEORGE, iii., 232, note.
SPENCER, JOSEPH, iii., 407, note ; in N. Y., 462, 495.
SPENCER, COL. OLIVER, HI., 546.
SPINOSA, of Diego, ii., 561.
SPOTSWOOD, ALEXANDER, of VM., iii., 72; expedition
over the Blue Ridge, 73, 257 ; ceased to be Gov.,
74: death, 76 ; assists General Hyde of N. C , 89.
Si'orrsYLVANiA, batlle of, iv., 574.
SPRINGFIELD, Mass., founded, i., 552; ii., 6; arsenal
at, iii., 545.
SPRINGFIELD, N. J., skirmish at. iii. ,546.
SPRIVGFIELD, N. Y., burned, iii., 609.
SPUYTEN DUYVIL CREEK, iii., 516.
SQUAMSCOT FALLS. (See Exeter, N. II.)
SQUANDO, a sachem, ii., 437, 442.
SQUANTO, the INDIAN, i., 331, 401.
SQUATTER SOVEREIGNTY, iv., 406.
SQUAW SACHEMS. (See Weetamoo and Magnus.)
STAFFORD COUNTY, Va., ii., 294,
STAGG, in Virginia, ii., 212
STAMFORD, Conn., ii., 138, 146.
STAMP ACT. THE, iii , 338, 348.
STAMP DUTIES, ill., 833.
STAMPS, refusal of, iii., 343 et seq.
STANDISH, MILES, cruiseof, i.,391 ; fight with Indians,
408 ; at Merry Mount, 426 ; ii., 148.
STANTON, EDWIN M., appointed Secretary of War, iv.,
468 ; Grant's testimony as to, 570.
STAR OF THE WKST, sent to Suinter, iv., 444.
STARBUCK, EDWARD, of Nantncket, Hi., 2, note.
STARHUCK. .NATHANIEL, of Naiitucket, iii., 2, note.
STARK, JOHN, at Ticonderoga, III. ,298 : at Bunkerllill,
402; at Trenton. 528 ; his home, 580; at Benning-
ton, 581, 582.
STARKE, punished at Hartford, ii., 25.
STATE DEBTS, assumption of, iv., 106.
STATE RIGHTS, first declaration of, iv., 130 ; begin
ning of the contest, 288 ; discussed by Ilayne and
Webster, 305 ; Callioun's toast, 308, note.
STATE STREET, Boston, ii., 393.
STATE STREET, New York, ii., 341.
STATEN ISLAND, sold, i., 432, 442 : Melyn's manor at,
ii., 135, Howe's troops on, Hi., 492'; 496.
STATES, constitutions adopted, iii., 487.
STATES GENERAL, THE, ii., 134, 135, 138
STAUNTON, Va , founded, 111., 74.
STEAM NAVIGATION, iv., 275, 276.
STEAMBOAT, Fulton's first, iv., 169.
STEARNS, GEORGE L., iv , 430.
STEBBINS, DANIEL, his account of Shays's rebellion,
iv., 98, note.
STKED BONNET, a pirate captain, iii., 98.
STEELE, GEN. FRED., in Red River expedition, iv., 567.
STEELE, JOHN, ii., 22, note.
STEPHEN, GENERAL, at Trenton, Hi., 529 ; at Brandy-
wine, 554 ; at Geruiantown, 559.
STEPHENS, MR., sent to Albany, iii., 433.
STEPHENS, ALEXANDER H., elected Vice-president of
the Confederacy, iv., 440.
STEPHENS, SAMUEL, of N. C., ii., 280, 284.
STEPHENS, WILLIAM, ot'Ga., Hi., 166.
STERLING, COLONEL, iii., 562.
STERRETT, LIEUT., service in Mediterranean, in the
war with Tripoli, iv., 166.
STF.UDEN, BARON FREDERICK WILLIAM VON, at Valley
Forge, iii., 593 ; his character, 597 ; at Monmouth,
602 et seq. ; in Virginia, iv., 50.
STEUUENVILLE, Ohio, pictured rock at, i., 61.
STEVENS, commands militia in the Southern cam
paign, iv., 34.
STEVENS, GEN., killed, iv., 498
STEVENS, JOHN, iv.,2^5.
STEVENSON, a signer of the Vntooslt, ii., 134.
STEVENSON, MARMADUKE, ii., 190, 193.
STEWART, CAPT., captures Cyaweand Leraiit, iv., 225.
STEWART, COLONEL, at Monmouth, iii., 605.
STEWART, LiEUT.-ctL , left in command by Rawdon,
iv., 62.
STEWART, ISAAC, on Welsh tradition, i., 71.
STEWART, SIR JOHN, ii., 4L7, note.
STICKNEY, COLONEL, iii., 581.
STILLMAN, MAJOR, iv., 295.
STII.LWATER, battles of, iii., 585, 589.
STIRLING, LADY, claims Long Island, ii., 124.
STIRLING, LORD, at New York, iii. ,461, 462, note, 495 ;
at Brooklyn, 5(>2 : at Trenton, 619 : at Brand} wine,
544 ; at Germantowu, 559 : his raid on Staten Island,
iv., 11.
STIRLING, WILLIAM, EARL OF, ii., 34,124.
STODDARD, THE REV. SOLOMON, iii. ,205.
STONE, Governor of Aid., ii., 214.
STONE, of Maryland, opinion as to State debts, iv.,
106, note.
STONE, CHARLES P., iv.. 454.
STONE RIVER, battle of. iv., 536.
STONE, SAMUEL, teacher, i.. 540, 551.
STONE, REV. SAMUEL, ii., 9 ti K<[., 37.
STONE, WILLIAM, murdered by Indians, i., 556.
STOM.NGTON, Conn., ii., 12; Hi., 114; bombarded,
iv., 216.
STONE STREET. (Sec Brouwer Straat.)
STONEWALL. (See Jackson, Thos. J.)
STONO FERRY, fight at, iii , 614.
STONO INLET, S. C., ii., 361.
STONY CREEK, iii., 534 ; battle of, iv., ]!)7.
STONY POINT, captured by the British, iii., 615; re
captured by Wayne, 616.
STORRS, HENRY R., iv., 267.
STORY, JOSEPH, iv., 180.
STOUOHTON, CAPTAIN, in Pequot war, ii., 15.
STOUGHTON, WILLIAM, of Mass., ii., 401 ; witches, 456
etseq. ; iii., 20, 110, 120.
STOUT, MR., his testimony, iv., 329.
STOUT, SAMUEL, iii., 526, note.
STRACHEY, WILLIAM, his account of Pocahontas and
Powhatan, i., 281, 283, 285; of Somers's ship
wreck, 292, 293.
STRAT-FLUR, al:bey of, in Wales, i., 67.
STRATFORD, Conn., settled, ii., 31.
STRICKER. JOHN, at North Point, iv., 222.
IMJKX TO THE FOUR VOLUMES.
643
STRINGHAM, SILAS If., commands Ilatteras expedition,
iv., 458.
STRONG, CALKU, satiri/.od. iv.. 2311.
STRONG, LEONARD, in Maryland, ii., 219, note.
BROTHER, FORT, iv., 210.
STRYKER, WILLIAM S., iii., 527, note.
STUART, LIEUT. -COL., at Guilford Court House, iv.,
47.
STUART, .1. E. B., raid on the Cbickahominy, iv.,
478 ; raid on Pope's headquarters, 495 ; at Gettys
burg, 555.
STUART, MOSES, iv., 398.
STUDY HILL, Blackstone's house at, ii., 407.
STURGIS, MAJOR, iv., 456.
STUYVKSANT, PETER, at Curacoa, I., 461 : New Nether-
laml, 463 : in New Amsterdam, ii., 115 et seq.; his
administration, 122 : controversies, 123 ft seq., 128,
13(1 ft si-'/., 185, 136, 145 et seq.; visits Delaware,
15 ', 152 tt set/. : the W. I., 157 ; New Sweden, 158
ft seq : returns, 232; concessions, 236, 237 : treat
ment of Lutherans and others, 237 1 1 s?q. : of Quak
ers, 239 et seq. : warning to the Co., 247 : aft'.iirs on
the Delaware, 248 et set/.; on Long Island, etc.,
257; surrender of New Netherlands, 262 et seq.;
oath of allegiance, 320; secures trade to N. Y.,
333; death, 341.
SUBERCASE, at Port Royal, iii., 126.
SUCRE, iv.. Ul.
SUDBURY, Muss., ii., 416.
SUFFOLK COUNTY, Long Island, ii., 327.
SUFFOLK RESOLUTIONS, THE, iii., 472.
SUGAR, production and export, iv., 171.
SUGAR ACT, THE, iii., 3~>1, 355.
SUGAR LOAF MOUNTAIN, iii., 572.
SULLIVAN, FORT, at Charleston, iii., 467 ft seq.
SULLIVAN, JOHN, iii., 4^7, note: at Boston, 426; at
N. Y., 429 ; in Canada, 450 ; at T iconderoga, 450 ;
at N. Y., 462, 495 : succeeds Lee, 525 ; at Brandy-
wine, 551; at Germantown, 559; battle of It. I.,
607 : his expedition to central New York, iv., 2.
SULLIVAN'S ISLAND, iii., 467.
SUMNKR, CHARLES, assaulted, iv., 419.
Su.MNEit, GKX. K. V., in Peninsular campaign, iv.,
467 : at Antietam, 502.
SUMTER, FORT, iv., 442-446.
SUMTKK, THOMAS, his services in the southern cam
paign, iv., 31 ft seq. ; defeated by Tarleton, 37.
SUXISURY, (ia., captured, iii., 613.
SUS.JUEHANNAH INDIANS, in Md . i., 508, 509.
SuSyUEHANNOCK INDIANS, ii., 214, 294.
SUTHERLAND, CAPT., his advice to Andre, iv., 21.
SUTTER, COL., iv., 387.
SUWANXEE, Jackson marches on, iv., 254.
SWAANKNDAKL, Dutch colony at, i., 433, 436 ; sold to
W. 1. Co., 442.
SWAIN, .JOHN, of Nantucket, iii., 2, note.
SWAIN, RICHARD, of Nantucket, iii., 2, note.
SWAINE, WILLUM, ii., 22, note.
" SWALLOW,-' THE, ii., 181, 182.
SWANSEA, Wales, wreck of Princess at, ii , 120.
SWANSEA, Mass., Indian attack at, ii., 406.
SWARTHMORE HALL, residence of Fox, ii., 173.
SWARTWOUT, COLONEL, iii., 462.
SWEDEN, witchcraft trials in, ii., 453.
SWEDES, settlement of. ii., 150 et seq., 1(>(J.
SWEDE'S FORD, iii., 55-i.
SWORDS' FARM, iii., 585
SYKE.N. GEX. GEORGE, at Gettysburg, iv., 552.
SY.MMES, JOHN ULEVES, iv., 112.
' I \\BLKT, a leaden, iii., 255, and note.
1 TAKNSA INDIANS, it., 514 el .s«7.,564
TAII.ER, COLONEL, of Mass., iii., 128
TALCOT. MAJOR, ii., 415, 417.
TALCOTT, JOHN, at Westchester, ii., 257.
TALIPOOSA INDIANS, ii., 564.
TALLADEGA, FORT, fight at, iv., 203.
TALLEYRAND, implicated in proposed bribery, iv., 133.
TALLMADGE, JAMES, on Missouri bill, iv., 265.
TALLMADGE, MAJOR BENJAMIN, at North Castle, iv.,
20 : connection with the capture of Andre, 25.
TALLUSCHATCHES, fight at, iv . 203.
TALMADGE at Schenectady. iii., 19.
TALON, JEAN, in Canad-, ii., 501, 502.
TAMAROA, Indian village of, ii., 513.
TAMIXEXT, sachem, at Penn's treaty, ii., 494.
TAMOCOMO, Indian in Va., i., 304
TANEY, ROGER B., Seer, of Treasury, iv., 302: in the
Prigg case, 347 ; his Dred Scott decision, 347.
TAPPAN, LEWIS, his house sacked, iv., 330.
TAR-CHA-CHA, killed, iv., 205.
TARIFF, as a sectional question, iv., 299; of 1828,
291; bill for protective, 107; Clay's, 309: Ver-
planck's, 310 ; of 1824, 278.
TAKI.ETON, BANASTRE, his campaign in the South, iv.,
30 et s?q. : in Virginia, 55.
TARRATINE INDIANS, ii., 435.
TATATRAX, a supposed Indian king, ii., 569.
TATNALL, JOSIAH, iv., 459.
TAUNTON, Mass., ii., 404 et seq.
TAXATION of the colonies, iii., 333 et seq.
TAYLER, COL., repartee of, iii., 49, note.
TAYLOR, DR., iv., 398.
TAYLOR, JOHN, travels of. ii., 181.
TAYLOR, JOHN W., iv., 267.
TAYLOR, ZACHARY, in Seminole war, iv., 353: in
Mexican war, 369 et seq.; elected President, 386 ;
policy, 389; death, 394.
TEA, duty on, etc., iii., 366 et seq
TEACH, commander of pirates, iii , 97 ; killed, 99.
TEOUMS :n, at Fort Stephenson, iv., 194; at Tippe-
canoe, 182: killed, 200; mission to the Southern
Indians, 203.
TELEGRAPH, MORSE'S invention, iv., 315 : the Atlan
tic, 428.
TEMPLE'S FARM, iii., 393
TEMPLE, JOHN, his duel, iii., 369.
TEMPLE, SIR THOMAS, ii., 385.
TEN BROECK, GEX., iii. . 587.
TENNESSEE, visited by I)e Soto, ii., 509; Washington
County, iii., 610.
TENNIS COURT, THE, iii., 369, note.
TERRE HAUTE, iv., 182.
TERRY, GEN. A. II., captures Fort Fisher, iv., 596.
il TEST ACT," THE, passed, ii., 353.
TEW, a pirate, iii., 34, 37.
TEW, RICHARD, ii., 113, note.
TEXAS (State of), La _Salle in. ii., 517 et seq.: an
nexed to the U. S., 555 : missions and posts in, 598
et seq. ; boundaries, iv., 394; the question of ac
quisition, 362 el seq. ; treaty rejected, 368 ; an
nexation, 36&r
THACHE. (See Teach.)
THACHKR, OXENBRIDGE, iii., 332.
THACHER. KF.V. PETER, iii., 400, 507, 575.
THAMES RIVER, ii., 4, 11, 14.
TIIANET, EARL OF, ii., 435, note.
THANKSGIVING (Negro Plot), iii., 242.
THAYER, ELI, iv., 408.
THEVET, ANDRE, French navigator, i., 310.
THOMAS, proposes a compromise, iv., 268.
THOMAS, LIEUT., killed at Savannah, iv., 10.
THOMAS, GEORGE, of Penn, iii., 189.
THOMAS, GEN. GEORGE II., iv., 532; at Chickamauga,
561; supersedes Roseerans, 563: in Sherman's At
lanta campaign, 579 et ser/. ; defeats Hood at Nash
ville, 584.
THOMAS, GENERAL JOHN, iii., 407, note ; at Dorches
ter Heights, 425 : in Canada, 449.
THOMPSON, accompanies Washington to New York,
iv., 105, not*
THOMPSON, GEN., Hi., 450.
THOMPSON, COL. WM., iii., 466.
THOMPSON. DAVID, at Portsmouth, i.,334 : at Thomp
son's Island, 423.
THOMPSON, HENRY, at Oriskany, iii., 578.
THOMPSON'S ISLAND, i., 423.
THORBRANDSON, SNORRI, a Norse, i., 46.
THORNHAI.L, a Northman, i., 48.
THORNE ROBERT, letter of, i., 223.
THORNTON, DR., saves Patent Office, iv., 221.
THOROUGHFARE GAP, iv., 496.
THORSPEIN OF ERICSFIORD, i., 45.
THORVAI.D, the Northman, i., 42 et seq.
THORVARD. a Greenlander, i.,46, 57, 58.
THROAT-DISTEMPER, iii., 204, note.
THROOKMORTON, JOHN, ii., 40, note.
THROG'S NECK, the British occupy, iii., 513; recon-
noissance at, iv., 66
TIENHOVKN, ADRIAN VAN, ii., 155.
TIKNHOVEN. CORNELIS VAN, ii., 118 : in Holland, 132,
133,134; fiscal, 136, 150.
644
INDEX TO THE FOUR VOLUMES.
TICONDEROGA, iii., 289; attacked by Abererombie,
297 ft seq. ; occupied by Auiherst, 302 : importance
of, 431,432: Allen's expedition, 433 et seq. ; Bur-
guy lie captures, 473.
TIUUA INDIANS, ii., 4^8.
TILGUMAN, GEN., at Fort Henry, iv., 516.
TILGIIMAN, LIEUT. -COL. TENCH, iii., 495.
TILLEY, JOHN AND EDWARD, i., 393, 398.
TIMBER ISLAND, ii , 100.
TIMHV, THEODORE K., iv.. 464
TINDALL, THOMAS, assault on Lord Baltimore, i., 485.
TINICUM ISLAND, settled bv Swedes, i., 471: ii., 150,
151, 152.
TIOGA POINT, Sullivan moves on, iv., 4.
TIPPECANOE, battle of, iv., 182.
TlstiUANTUM. (See Si[iianto.)
TITUBA, a negro .-lave, ii., 4-J7.
TIVERTON, R I., fort at, ii., 404, 40tj.
TOBACCO, in England, i., 250. note; profit of, 302 ; ,
in Conn., ii., ai; inVa., 210: iii.,54-5ij.
TOMBIGBEE KIVER, ii., 547.
TOM, King of the Xarragansetts, iii., 115.
TOMO CHICHI, Hi., 145, 151.
TOMOK\ KIVER, ii ,558.
TOMOO.UA INDIANS, ii., 558.
TOML-KINS, DANIEL D., chosen Vice-president, iv., 246.
TONTV, HENKI DE, with La Salle, ii., 512 et sen. ; at
St. Joseph, 516 . letter of, 523.
TooMus, ROBERT, approves the assault on Mr. Sum- !
ner, iv., 420.
TOPEKA, Kansas, legislature meets at, iv., 413.
TOPI-ING, THOMAS, ii , 320.
TORIES, in Boston, iii., 395 : in \. Y.. 455 : on Long
Island, 459 ; in X. C., 466 ; in Central X. Y., 609. i
TORONTO. (See York.)
TORRETT, JAMES, sells Nantucket, iii . 2, note.
TOSCANELLI, PAUL, geographer, i., 104.
TOWER, THOMAS, iii , 143, note.
TOWN-SEND, GENERAL, iii., 304: at Quebec, 310.
TOWNSUEND, CHARLES, iii. ,343, note, 352.
TOWSON, CAPT., at Chippewa, iv., 211.
TOZIER, RICHARD, attacked, ii., 439.
TRACY, DE, at Quebec, ii., 832 et xeq.
TRADE of the Colonies, iii., 331.
TRADING-POSTS., English, in Maine, iii., 197.
TREAT, GOVERNOR, iii., 27.
TREAT, MAJOR, at Bloody Brook, ii., 412.
TREAT, ROBERT, at Newark, X. J., ii., 322.
TREATY OF PEACE WITH ENGLAND, iv., 77: signed,
89 ; of Ghent, 236, 240.
TRENT AFFAIR, iv., 459.
TRENTON, X. J., iii. ,522, 525, 529, 530.
TRIMBLE, his account of Malvern Hill, iv., 488.
TRIMMINGS, SUSANNA, and witchcraft, ii., 467.
TRINITY CHURCH, N. Y., buys farm of Bogardus, ii.,
121, note; burned, iii., 511.
TRINITY RIVER, ii. 520.
TRIPLE ALLIANCE, THE (of 1668). ii.. 346.
TRIPPE, LIEUT., service in Mediterranean in the war
with Tripoli, iv., 15*.
TRIPOLI, war with, iv., 155.
TIIOMP, ADMIRAL, ii., 139.
TROTT, NICHOLAS, of S. C., iii., 96, 100.
TROUP, (iov., OH State rights and slavery, iv., 288.
TRUMAN, MAJOR THOMAS, of Va.., ii., '294, 295.
TRUMBULL, FORT, capture of, iv., 68.
TRUMBULL, (!ov., of Conn., iii., 413.
TRUMBULL, JOHN, iii , 409.
TRUMBULL, JOSEPH, iii., 409.
TRYON COUNTY, iii., 608.
TRYON, GOVERNOR, iii., 459: at X. Y.,492: at Dan-
bury, 547 ; in Connecticut, 615.
TUMULI, British, i.. 21.
TUNIS, treaty with, iv., 244.
TURNER, CM-TUN, at Turner's Falls, ii., 414.
TURNER, XAT.. his insurrection, iv., 319 et serf.
TURNER, ROBERT, of Kast Jersey, iii., 6. note.
TURNER'S FALLS, Mass., ii., 414.' 415.
TURNER'S GAP, iv.. 500.
TUP.TLE HAY, iii., 457.
Tusc \RORA, destroyed, iv., 202.
TUSCARORAS, join 'the Five Nations, iii., 48. 94: in
North C-irolim, 91.
TUSCUMBU, Ala., iv., 525.
TTTTII.L, U'ILLMM. of XY\v Haven, ii., 155, note.
TWIGGS, COL., at Kowltown, Iv., 249
[ "CITA, an Indian chid in Florida, i., 158.
J ULLOA, FRANCISCO DE, in Cal., ii , 566.
UNADILLA destroyed, iii., 609.
UNOAS, sachem, ii., 9, 16 ; murders Mianfononio, 92
et xeq.. 141, 142
UNPERHILI., JOHN, i., 458,460 : ii. .2,3,10: in Peiiuot
war, 2, 3, 10, et seq. ; on Long Island, 142 it mi/ :
vn R. 1., 143, 144.
UNIFORMS, iii., 494.
UNION OF COLONIES, plan of a, iii., 261.
UNIONTOWN, N. J., iii., 522.
UNITED COLONIES OF NEW ENGLAND, ii., 49.
UNITED STATES BANK, chartered, iv., 244.
" UNITED STATES/' frigate, captures Man don inn, iv
193 ; blockaded at New London, 2(»7.
UNION, first movement toward, iv., 99.
UNION, village of, iv., 4.
UNZAGA, Spanish Governor, iv.,139.
UPLAND. (See Chester, Pa.)
UPSHALL, NICHOLAS, on. the Friends, ii., 18(1.
UPSHUR, SECRETARY, appointed, iv.. 365; death, 367.
URY, JOHN (Negro Plot), iii., 239 ft seq.
USHER, JOHN, of N. 11., ii., 432 et si-q.
USSELINCX, \VILLIAM, i., 343, note, 465, 466.
UTIE, NATHANIEL, of Md., ii., 249.
UTRECHT, L. 1., the British occupy, iii , 497.
UTRECHT, TREATY OF, ii.. 524; iii., 46. 208.
UTRECHT, Union of, i., 341.
ANARCH, the baker, his connection with the Ne-
» gro Plot, ill., 226.
VALI.DIDIA, an Indian king, i., 53.
VALLEY FORGE, iii.. 565, 593.
VALPARAISO, fight in Harbor of, iv., 223.
VAN BUREN, MARTIN, Secretary of State, iv., 298;
administration as President, 354 ft seq : position in
1840, 358 ; free-soil candidate, 386.
VAN CORTI.ANDT, STEPHEN, member of New York
Council, iii., 12: anecdote of, 12, note; flight to
Albany, 16.
VAN COURTI.ANDT, COL., iii., 584.
VAN CURLER, ARENDT, i., 442.
VAN CURLER, JACOB, i., 440.
VAN DAM, RIP, of N. Y., iii., 50, 222. 224.
VAN UEERING'S MILLS, iii., 559.
VAN DER DONCK, ADRIAN, author of the Virtougli, ii.,
130 ; leader in New Nethcrland, 181 ft stq.. 139.
VANDERDUSSEN, COLONEL, of Carolina, ii., 561.
VAN DER GRIST, CAPTAIN, ii., 125.
41:
VAN DORN, GEN. EARL, at Corinth, iv., 534.
" VANDERBII.T," THE, iv., 459.
VANE, SIR HENRY, in Massachusetts, i., 553 : ii.,
aids Williams, 43, 104.
VANE, pirate captain, iii., 98.
VAN HORNE, DAVID, iii., 232, note.
VAN HORNE, THOS. B., defeated, iv., 188.
VAN MURRAY, WILLIAM, .-cut to France, iv., 134.
VAN NESS, COLONEL, iii.. 462.
VAN KENSSELAER, STEPHEN, at Queenstown, iv.,190.
VAN SCHAICK, COL., his expedition against the Ouon-
dagas, iv., 4.
VAN SPIIAICK'S ISLAND, iii. ,576.
VAN TWILI.ER, WOUTEK, in New Netherland, i.. 436.
VAN VOORST, at Pavonin, i., 442.
VAN WART, ISAAC, captor of Andre, iv., 24.
VAN /ANDT, MR., of X. Y., iii., 226.
VAN ZANDT, MR., Texan minister, iv.,369.
VAN EVXDT. \VINAN, iii., 232. nofe.
VARICK, COL., quoted, iii., 584, note.
VARXUM, COL., iii., 497.
" VARUNA." THE, at New Orleans, iv., 528.
VASCO XUNEH. (See Balboa.)
VAUDREUIL, MARQUIS DE, at N. o., ii.,550; Gov. of
Canada, iii., 46: inches Indians. 133: controlled
by the. Jesuits, 197.
VAUDREUIL. fighting at. iii.. 45' '.
VAUOHAN, COL. , at Loui-bnrg, iii., 212.
INDEX TO THE FOUR VOLUMES.
645
VAUGHAN, GEN., at N. Y., iii., 493.
VAUGHAN, LIEUT. -oov. of N. 11., Hi., 138.
VAWJUELIN, CAPT. , at Quebec, iii., 305, 311.
VEALTOWN, N. J., iii., 524.
VELASCO, DON Luis DE, i., 220.
VELASQUEZ, DON DIEGO, i., 148.
VENABLES, (JEN., ii., 481.
VENANGO, iii., 257, 259 : raptured, 323.
VENEGAS, the historian, ii., 589, 590.
VENNER, ii., 379, note.
VERA CRUZ, captured by Scott, iv., 37*5.
VERDRIETIU HUECK, Hudson River, i., 352.
VEKGENXES, COUNT DE, his influence against America,
iv., 7H.
VERHULT, WILLIAM, Gov. of Dutch colony, i.. 367.
VERIN, JOSHUA, ii., 40.
VERI.ETTENBERG, in N. Y. City, ii., 340.
VERMONT, the dispute over, iii., 434; the question
of her stntux, iv. , 78 et a?!/. : declares herself an
independent State, 79. admitted to the Union, 82.
VERNON, JAMES, iii., 143, note.
YKRNON, ADMIRAL, sent to the \Vest Indies, ii., 560 ;
iii., 159.
VERPLANCK, GULIAN 0 ., his revenue bill, iv., 310.
VERPLANK'S LANDING, captured, iii., 615.
YKRRAZANO, GIOVANNI DA, voyages of, i., 176, 180.
YERKAZANO, HIEROMMUS DA, i , 176, note.
" VERTOOGII '' or REPRESENTATION, ii., 130, 133.
VESPUCCI, AMERIGO, voyages of, i., 121, 122 ; letter to
I)e Medici, 124; to Soderini, 126 ; America named
for him, 127.
VICKSHURG, batteries passed by Farragut, iv., 530;
(Jrant begins operations against, 538 ; siege, 557 ;
surrender, 559.
VILLAGAGNON, in South America, 1., 189.
VINCENNES, Iii., 257 ; captured, 611.
VINCENT, GEN-., at battle of Stony Creek, iv., 197.
VINES, RICHARD, in Maine, i., 329, 335.
VINLAND, of the Northmen, i., 42.
YINTON, MR., iv., 415.
VIOMKNIL, BARON DE, at Yorktown, iv., 73.
VIRGINIA, called Axacan. i , 220 ; named by Raleigh,
245; first colony in, 269 ; colonial laws', 300; sla
very introduced, 302 ; massacre in 479 J governors
of, ii., 201 et sei/ ; massacre in, 204 : and the Com
monwealth, 211 ; Bacon's rebellion, 302 et seq ; iii.,
53; a royal province, 57 ; rebellions in, 58 ; state
prisoners sent to, 58 ; condition of in 1692, 64, 68 ;
towns, 7S ; against taxation, 33S ; Stamp Act, 339,
340; adopts a constitution, 487 ; on independence,
479 ; political importance, iv., 246.
" VIRGINIA,'- THE, first American ship, i., 292.
VIRGINIA COMPANY, charters of, i., 267, 291 ; hostility
to Plymouth Co., 332 ; James 1. and, 476 ; dissolu
tion,^' ; attempt to reestablish, ii., 202.
VIRGINIA, U'inthrop on massacre in, ii., 57.
ViscAiNO. on the Pacific coast, ii., 565 et seq.
VOLANOS, a pilot in Viscaino's fleet, ii., 586.
VON STIRN, GENERAL, iii., 493.
VOYAGEURS, THE, origin of, ii., 522.
VRIESEXDAEL, De Yries's colony, i., 452.
" VULTURE," THE, her connection with Arnold's plot,
iv., 20.
AVAILS!! RIVER, origin of the name, ii., 507
* and note.
U'ACHUSETT INDIANS, at Lancaster, ii., 414.
WACHUSETT, MOUNT, ii., 414.
WADDLE, WM., of Gorton party, ii., 75, note.
WADSWORTH, ('APT., iii., 28.
WADSWOKTH, COL , iii., 393.
WADSWORTH, GKN., iii. ,495.
WADSWORTH, HENRY, iv., 160
WAGES in Massachusetts in 1715, iii., 127 ; in Eng
land, 127, note.
WAGNER, FORT, iv., 544 ; reduced, 589.
WAHAH'S, skirmish at, iv., 37.
WAII AI GNONAWir, on Wheelwright's deed, ii., 436.
WAHUINNACUT, a Connecticut chief, i., 547.
WAKE, pirate, iii., 34.
WAKELET, Ingrain's lieutenant, ii , 315.
WALCOT, MARY, and the witches, ii . 458 et seq.
WALDECKERS, iii., 531 : defeated in X. J., 546.
WALDKNSES, THE, on the Delaware, ii., 162.
WALDO, ('APT , at Jame.-town, i , -96
WALDO PATENT, THE, II., 427, note.
WALDRON, MAJOR RICHARD, resists Allen, ii., 434,
435; entraps the Indians, 440 ; at the Kennebec,
441 ; murdered, 444, 445.
WALDRON, RESOLVED, Commissioner to Mai-viand, ii.
250.
WALDSEEMULLER, MARTIN, publishes Cosmograjthiee
Introductio, i., 126; names America, 127.
WALFORD, GOODWIFE, a witch, ii., 467.
WALFORD, THOMAS, at Charlestowu, i., 531 ; fined
and banished, 533.
WALKER, GEN., in Antietam campaign, iv., 500.
WALK KB, HENDERSON, of N. C., death of, iii., 86.
WALKER, ADMIRAL, SIR HOVEDEN, iii., 45.
WALKER, JOHN, ii., 4i, note.
WALKER, ROBERT J., Governor of Kansas, iv., 414.
WALKER, WILLIAM, filibuster, iv., 428.
" WALK-IN-THE-WATER," THE, iv., 275.
WAI.KLATE, GEORQE, iii. ,52.
WALL STREET (N. Y.), origin of name, ii., 338.
WALLABOUT BAY, the Waal-bogt. i., 366 ; iii., 498.
WALLACE, CAPT., of the Rase, iii., 417.
WALLACE, LEWIS, at Shiloh, iv., 524.
W ALLEY, MAJOR, of Plymouth, ii., 398.
W ALLEY on Leisler, iii., 20.
WALLOOMSCOIK RIVER., iii. ,581.
WALLOONS, in America, i., 365.
WALLYS, SAMUEL, and Connecticut charter, ii., 392.
WAI.POLE GRANT, THE, iii., 257, note.
WALPOLE, HORACE, iii., 369, note ; quoted, 378, note.
WALPOLE, SIR ROBERT, quoted, iii., 331.
WALPOLE'S LETTERS, quoted, iii., 292, note.
WALSINGHAM, SIR FRANCIS, i., 232, 341.
WALTER, THE REV. MR., iii., 128.
WALTON, GEORGE, ii., 467.
WAMESIT, ii., 436, note.
WAMPANOAGS, or POKANOKETS, ii., 402,404.
WAMSUTTA. (See Alexander.)
"WANTON GOSPELLERS," in Massachusetts, ii.. 67.
WAR declared by England against France (1702),
iii., 122.
WAR with the French, iii., 250 et. seq. ; expenses of,
330,331.
WAR DEMOCRATS, iv., 449.
WARD, ANDREW, ii., 22, note.
WARD, GEN. ARTEMAS. at Boston, iii., 394, 407, 425.
WARD, COLONEL, fortifies lirooklyn. iii., 462.
WARD, ENSIGN, at Pittslnirg, iii., 260.
WARD, Governor of Rhode island, iii., 339.
WARD, REV. XATHANIEL, ii., 42; Simple Cob/er of
Agawum, 59, note ; " Body of Liberties," 61 ; son
punished, 66, note.
WARD, MRS. S. A., iv., 276, note.
WARDSWORTH, CAPTAIN, and Conn, charter, ii.,392;
killed, 416.
WAREHAM, JOHN, of Dorchester, i., 531, 532.
WARNE, THOMAS, of East Jersey, iii., 6, note.
WARNER, COLONEL, of Va., quoted, iii., 52.
WARNER, JOHN, of Gorton party, ii., 75, note.
WARNER, COLONEL SETH, in., 436, 574, 581.
WARREN, ADMIRAL, in command on the American
coast, iv., 205.
WARREN, CAPTAIN, at St. Augustine, ii., 562; iii.,
226.
WARREN, COMMODORE, iii.. 209, 213, 215.
WARREN, GEN. GOUVERNEI R K., at Gettysburg, iv.,
554 et seq.: in overland campaign, 571 ft seq. ; in
siege of Petersburg, iv., 594.
WARREN, JAMES, letter from Adams to, iii., 476; to
i-erry, 478, 582, 617, note.
WARREN, JOSEPH, his oration, Hi., 380; his predic
tion, 386; earlock shot, 392 ; letter to Gage, 394;
killed, 403 ; reports Suffolk Resolutions 472.
WARREN, MARY, confession on witchcraft, ii., 463.
WARREN, ADMIRAL, SIR PETER, iii., 243.
WARREN, CAPTAIN RATCLIFF, i., 601.
WARREN, RICHARD, of the Mtn/flnwer, i., 393, note.
WARREN, WINSI.OW, iii., 476, second note.
WARRENTON, iv.,507.
WARRINGTON, CAPT., iv., 224.
WARWICK, R. I. (See Shawomet.)
WARWICK, Penn., iii., 556.
WARWICK, EMU. OF, i., 481; ii., 98; on Williams
charter, 102
WASHINGTON CITY, the Capital removed to, iv., 135;
Ross's expeditition against, 218 ; public buildings
burned, 220.
INDEX TO THE FOUR VOLUMES.
WASHINGTON, KORT, iii., 491, 518.
WASHINGTON, FORT, site of Cincinnati, iv., 112.
WASHINGTON, GEORGE, sent to Venango, iii., 269;
joins Braddock, 2li4 : joines Forbes, 300 ; appointed
Commander-in-chief , 407 ; at Cambridge, 408 ; his
medal, 428 ; instructs Arnold, 442 ; hurries troops
to N. Y., 462: a letter to, refused, 496; in New
York, 506 ; crosses the Delaware, 522, 531 : marches
on Princeton, 532 ; correspondence with Howe,
541; breaks camp at Morristown, 550 ; at llarts-
ville, 551 ; at battle of Brandywine, 554 et seq. ; at
Valley forge, 593: pursues Clinton, 002 ; at Mon-
mouth, 604; rebukes Lee, 604; at Hartford, iv.,
21 ; at Wetherstield, (35 : interview with an aged
patriot, 71 ; at Newburgh, 84 et sri/. ; plot to cap
ture. 84 : monarchy proposed to, 85. his address
to the army, 88 ; takes leave of his officers, 89 ; his
journey to the West, 95 ; opinion of Congress, 95 ;
ou societies for managing public affairs, y6 ; pre
sides over Constitutional Convention, 100 ; chosen
President, 104: etiquette during his presidency,
111 ; his death, 135 ; Lee's eulogy on, 136.
WASHINGTON, JOHN, of Va., ii., 294, 295.
WASHINGTON, LAWRENCE, iii., 76 ; in the Ohio Com
pany, 257.
WASHINGTON, LUND, at Jit. Vernon, iv., 55.
WASHINGTON, WILLIAM AUGUSTINE, in Ohio Company,
iii., 257 ; at Trenton, 529; iv., 13; at battle of
Cowpens, 42, 43 ; at Guilford Court House, 46 ; at
Eutaw Springs, 64.
WASHITA RIVER, ii., 546.
" WASP,'' THE, captures the Frolic, iv., 192; cap
tures the KeinrJeer1 224.
WATERBURY, Conn., iv., 245.
WATERMAN, HICHARD, ii., 40, note; one of (lorton
party, 75, note.
WATERS, ANTHONY, an agitator, ii., 257.
WATKRTOWN, Mass., settled, i.,532 : emigration from,
ii.. 25.
WATSON, FORT, capture of, iv.,57.
WATTS, ROBERT, iii., 232, note.
WAUGH, DOROTHY, a Friend, at New Amsterdam, ii.,
239.
WAWENOCK INDIANS, ii., 435.
WAXHAW, action at, iv., 30.
WAYLAND, FRANCIS, iv., 335.
WAYNE, ANTHONY, in Canada, iii., 450, 544 ; at Bran
dy wine, 554 ; at Paoli, 557 ; at Germantowu, 559 ;
captures Stony Point, 616; attempt to suppress
mutiny, iv., 50 ; campaign against Indians, 116.
WEALTH of the colonies, iii., 331.
WEATHERSFORD, WM., iv., 203.
WBBII, COL. CHARLES, iii.. 515.
WEBB, GENERAL, at Oswego, iii. ,291; at Fort Ed
ward, 292 ; his cowardice, 294.
WEBB, (JEN. .1. WATSON, iii., 496, note.
WEBB, LIEUT. -COL. SAMUEL 1$., iii., 495, 496.
WEBSTER, a British officer under Cornwallis. at New
York, Hi., 493.
WEBSTER, COL., at battle of Camden, iv., 36.
WEBSTER, DANIEL, leads free-trade party, iv., 245 : de
fends i:. S. Bank, 301; his debate with lluyne,
305 ; instructs Minister Everett, 345 : removed from
the Cabinet. 364 ; on the compromises of 1850, 392.
WEBSTER, LIEUT.-COLONEL. at Guilford Court House,
iv., 46.
WEBSTER, Mass., iv., 315.
WKBSTER, NOAH, iii., 582 ; his books, iv., 111.
WECKQUASGEEKS, Indian tribe, i., 451.
WEDDF.RIHIIIN insults Franklin, iii. ,369.
WEED, THURI.OW, iv., 440.
WEEDOS, GENERAL, iii., 544, 556.
WEEKS, .JOHN, ii., 113, note.
WKETAMOO, a squaw sachem, ii., 404.
WEETU.MKA INDIANS, ii., 564.
" WELCOME/' THE, Penn's vessel, ii., 489.
WELDE, HEV. THOMAS. Mass, agent, ii., 101, 377.
WELLING, DR. .(AMES ('., cited, iii., 476, note.
WELLS, Me., Indian attack at, ii.,441.
WELLS, WILLIAM, ii., 320.
WELSH, tradition concerning America, i., 66 it .tn/.
WEMYSS, MAJOR, quoted, iii.. 397, note.
WENTWOHTH, BFNNI.NG, ii., 4^6, note ; Gov. of N. II.,
iii., 199: Louishnrg expedition, 211, note; his
administration, 198.
WENTWORTH, SIR JOHN, ii., 427, note.
WENTWORTH. JOHN, of N. II., iii., 138, 139.
WEQUASH, a Pequot deserter, ii., 12.
WEROWOCOMOCO, home of Powhatan, i., 281.
WESLEY, CHARLES, goes to Georgia, iii., 151
WESLEY, JOHN, iii., 151, 203.
WESSAGUSSET. (See Weymouth )
WEST, CAPTAIN, assistant to Gorges, i., 334.
WEST, MR., on James River, i., 214.
WEST INDIA COMPANY, DUTCH, ii., 31, 124, 146.
WEST NEW JERSEY. (See New Jersey.)
WEST POINT, Arnold takes command of. iv., 18.
WEST POINT, Va., ii., 313 : taken, 315 ; iv., 468.
WEST. BENJAMIN, cited, iii., 334.
WEST. FRANCIS, of Virginia, i., 484.
WEST, JOSEPH, of Carolina, ii., 281 : Governor of
South Carolina, 283.
WEST, BOBERT, of East Jersey, iii., 6, note.
WESTBROOK, COLONEL, arrests' Rasle, iii., 194.
WESTCHESTER (Oost-dorp), settled, ii., 245.
WESTCOAT, STUKELY, ii.,39, note.
WESTERLY, R. 1., iii., 114, 205.
WESTERN COMPANY, ii., 531 tt seq., 546.
WESTFIELD, Mass., ii., 406.
WESTMINSTER, TREATY OF, ii., 352.
WESTON, FRANCIS, ii., 40, note, 70 tt sn/., 75, note.
WESTON, THOMAS, aids the U>yden Puritans, i.,384;
in New England, 410.
WESTWOOD, WILLIAM, ii., 22, note.
WETHERSFIELD, Conn., settled, i.,549; H , ii, it, 22;
conference of commanders at, iv., 65.
WEYMOUTH, colonies at, i., 406, 409, 410.
WEYMOUTH, GEORGE, voyage of, 1., 315, 316: Indians
captured by, 318.
WIIALLKY, COL. EDWARD, ii., 379 el se/j., 380, note.
WHATEI.Y, Mass., ii.. 414.
WHATELY, MR., his duel, iii., 369.
WHEELER, CAPTAIN, and Nipmuck Indians, ii.,407.
WHEELWRIGHT, KEV. JOHN, in Boston, i., 553 ; ii.,
42; at Exeter, N. 11 , 422: in Maine, 423: in Eng
land, 423 : Indian deed to, 434, 435, 436.
WHIG PARTY, THE, iii., 25, 46 : iv.. 417.
WHIPPLE, commands a cruiser, iii., 414.
WHIPPLE, COMMODORE, at Charleston, iv., 12.
WHISKEY INSURRECTION, iv., 118 et snj.
WHITE, COLONEL, iv., 13.
WHITE, ANDREW, in Mil., i., 489; narrative of, 491.
WHITE, JOHN, of Raleigh's colony, i., 251, 252, 253.
254.
WHITE, KEV. JOHN, of Dorchester, i., 420.
WHITE HOUSE, on the Panmnkey, iv., 473.
WHITE MAN'S LAND, tradition of, i., 53, note.
WHITE OAK CREEK, affairs at, iv., 484.
WHITE PEOPLE, iii., 37.
WHITE PLAINS, iii., 513 : battle of, 515.
WHITEFIKLD, GEORGE, in Va . iii., 77 : at Savannah,
152; his sympathy with slaves, 154; his orphan
hou.se, 155; in New Kn gland, 203 ; his oratory,
206, 207 ; his counsel as to the Louisburg expedi
tion, 211.
WHITEHALL, N. Y., iii., 285.
WHITEHALL STREET, N. Y., name of ii., 3, 41.
WIIITEHAVEN, England, iii., 61S.
WIIITESIDE, GENERAL, in Black Ha\\k war, iv., 2'.i5 .
WIIITFIEI.D, JOHN W., in Kansas, iv., 411.
WHITING, LIEUT., at Lake George, iii., 287.
WHITNEY, ADDISON 0., iv., 447, note.
WHITNEY, ELI, ii., 551 ; invents the colton-gin. iv..
108.
WHITNEY, SYLVANUS, iii., 373.
WHITTIER, JOHN G., iv., 331.
WirKENDAM, WILLIAM, at Flushing, ii., 23!'.
WICKES, JOHN, aids Gorton, ii., till, 75, note.
WICKFOUD, R. 1., iii., 114
WIUGINS, THOMAS, of N. II., attacks Mason and l!:irc-
foot, ii., 431, 432.
WIGHCOMOCO, sea-tight in, I., 501, 502.
WII.DORE, SAMUEL, ii., 44, note, 113. note.
WILCOX, GEN., at Fra/.ier's Farm, iv., 485.
WILCOX, GEN. ('. M ., at Gettysburg, iv., 555.
WILDE, RKV THOMAS, his son, ii., 66, note.
WILDERNESS, battle of the, iv., 573 et se//.
WILDWYCK, or WII.TWYCK. (See Esopus.)
WII.KES, CH VRI.KS, captures Mason and Slidell, iv.,
460.
WII.KES, H'RKDERn-K, iii., 2oo.
WILKKS, JOHN, iii., :>6.">.
INDEX TO THE FOUR VOLUMES.
WlLKESBARRE, ill., 609.
WILKINSON, CAPT. HENRY, of X. C., ii., 28S.
WILKINSON, MAJOR, iii., 525, 592.
WILKINSON, COL., his raid, iv., 115.
WILKINSON, GEN., connection with Burr's scheme,
iv., 151 ; in command at Cincinnati, 136 : treason,
137; expedition down the St. I>awrence, 201;
takes .Mobile, 202 : eourt-martialled, 210.
WILKINS, MAJOR, wreck of, iii , 321.
WILLARD, witchcraft, ii.,459.
WII.LARD, SIMON, at Brookfield, ii., 408.
WII.LEMSTADT. (See Albany.)
WILI.ETT, LIEUT. -COL., at Oriskany, iii., 578.
WII.LETT, MARINUS, his exploit, iii , 458.
WII.I.ETT, THOMAS, commissioner, ii., 137; at Plym
outh, 148
WILLIAM OF ORANGE, murder of, i., 341.
WILMAM AND MART, accession of, iii., 12.
WILLMM AND MARY COLLEGE, iii., 59, 70.
WILLIAM 111., ii., 392; proclaimed in Boston, 395 :
iii. 26; death of, 178'.
WILLIAM, FORT, Georgia, iii., 159.
WILLIAM HENRY. FORT, iii.. 289, 292 ; capitulates to
M on teal in. 294.
WILLIAMS, at Hartford, ii., 25.
WILLIAMS. COL., iii., 581.
WILLIAMS, .MR., on Welsh tradition, i., 72.
WILLIAMS. MR., indicted in Alabama, iv., 328.
WILLIAMS, KKV. MR., captured at Deerlield, iii., 123
WILLIAMS, DAVID, captor of Andre', iv., 24.
WILLIAMS, REV. ELEAZKR, ii., 502, note.
WILLIAMS, COL. EPHKAIM, iii., 285, 286, and note.
WILLIAMS, JONATHAN, iii., 371.
WILLIAMS, Onio, at Guilford Court House, iv., 46.
WILLIAMS, ROGKR, at Manhattan, i., 460 ; at Boston,
533 ; at Salem and 1'lymouth,' 535 ; controversy
England, 111 : against the Friends, 183.
WiLLiAMSiti'RG, Va., iii., 70 ; the allied armies arrive
at, iv., 71.
WILLIAMS COLLKUE, iii., 287, note.
WILLIAMSON. DR. HUGH, iii., 475, note.
WILLIAMSTUWN. Mass., iii., 433.
WiLLOL'Giiiiv, SIR HUGH, voyage of, i., 227.
WILMINGTON, Del., iii., 553.
WILMOT, DAVID, his proviso, iv., 3S5 ; in Philadelphia
Convention, 422.
WILSON (Negro Plot), a sailor, iii., 225.
WILSON, EDWARD, killed in a duel, ii., 527.
WILSON, HENRY, error in his book, iv.,266; chal
lenged, 420.
WILSON, (lEN. JAMES II., at Petersburg!!, iv., 591.
WILSON, REV. JOHN, ii., 41 : strikes Holmes, 108 ; in
sults Quakers, 193.
WILSON'S CREEK, battle of, iv., 455.
WINCHESTER, Mi Iroy defeated at, iv., 551; Early de
feated at, 594.
WINCHESTER, KEN., captured, iv., 194.
WINCKKI. STREET, X. Y.,ii., 340.
WINCOB, JOHN, patent granted to the Puritans in his
name, i.. 3S3.
WINDER, HEN., captured, iv., 198.
WINDER. WILLIAM II., in command near Washington,
iv., 21*.
WINDSOR, Conn., settled, i., 548 ; ii., 6, 9, 22.
WINDSOR. X. S., iii., 274.
WINGFIELD, EDWARD MARIA, of Virginia, i., 267 ; at
Jamestown, 269 et ser/. : trouble with John Smith,
273 et seq.; deposed, 277; returns to England,
286.
WINGINA, an Indian chief in Va., i., 244, 248.
WINNEIJAGOS, THE, iv., 295.
WINXKTMKTT. (See Hampton.)
WINNIPISEOGEE, L\KE, i iidians of . ii.,435.
WINSLOW. EDWARD, at Leyden, i., 380 ; envoy to
Massasoit, 4(»7 ; in England, 413, 415, 417 : K. I . pa
tent, ii., 43; on liorton claims in, 98 ; sketch of,
98, note ; meets Stuyvesanr in W. I , 157.
WINSLOW, LIEUT. -COL., JOHN, iii., 275 et se.ij.
WINSLOW, JOHN A., his victorv in the K^arsarge, iv.,
689
WINTHROP, ADAM, ii., 255, note.
WINTHROP. GEN. Krrz-John, iii.. 27.
WINTHROP, JOHN, in Mass., i., 526,527, 529 ; on Endi-
cott's expedition, ii.,4 ; in religious controversies,
41 ; on Mrs. Ilutchinson, 4j ; Aquidneck settlers. 46 ;
Coddington's letter, 48 ; special providences, 54
et seq; the settlement at Providence, 67,69; the
Gorton matter, 72, 82, 87, 89 ; Uncas and Mianto-
nomo, 93 et seq., 97 ; correspondence with Stuy
vesant, 124; advice to Governor Eaton, 127 ; iii.,
112, 113, 117.
WINTHROP, JOHN, JR., Connecticut, i., 550 ; at Say-
brook, ii., 5 ; at New Netherland, 263.
WINTHROP. ROBERT C., candidate for Speaker, iv.,
3S9.
WINTHROP, THEODORE, killed, iv.,450.
WIRT, WILLIAM, represents the Cherokees, iv., 289.
WISCONSIN, explorations in, ii., 500 et seq.
WISCONSIN RIVER, ii., 501, 503, 504
WISE, REV. JOHN, advice as to Audros, ii., 389.
WISE, REV. MR., of Ipswich, iii., 128.
WISE, HENRY A., leads Democracy in Virginia, iv.,
417 : calls convention of Governors, 423.
WISNER, HENRY, iii. ,484, note.
WISTAR'S FORD, iii., 553.
WITCHCRAFT, ii., 450 et seq. ; in Europe, 451 et stq.;
in Mass., 455 et seq. ; in N. II., 465 et feq.
WITCHES' CREEK, X. II., ii., 468.
WITCH TROT, N. II., ii., 469.
WITH, JOHN, artist, i., 246.
WITHERHEAD, MARY, a Friend, at Xevv Amsterdam,
ii., 239.
Wrnu.AcoocHEE, campaign on the, iv., 353.
WITTER, WILLIAM, at Lynn, Mass., ii., 106.
WOCOKON, North Carolina, i.,242, note, 247.
WOI.COTT, OLIVER, ladies of his family make bullets
of King George's statue, iii., 487, 495 ; quoted,
5^2 ; joins Gates, 587.
WOLCOTT, ROGER, expedition against Louisburg, iii.,
211.
WOLFE, BRIG. -GEN. JAMES, at Louisburg, iii., 297;
Quebec, 304 et seq.
WOLFE'S COVE, iii., 309.
WOLLASTON'S, CAPT., colony, i., 423.
WOMAN with 360 living descendants, iii., 10.
WONDERSTRAND, Cape Cod so named, i., 47.
WONNELAUSET, a N. II. sachem, ii., 437.
WOOD, FERNANDO, iv., 439.
WOOD, REBECCA, and 1'enn, iii., 173.
WOOD, GEN. THOMAS J., at Chattanooga, iv., 565
WOODBINE, in Florida, iv., 251.
WOODBRIDGE, New Jersey, ii., 472 ; iii., 522.
WOODBRIDGE, REV. MR., on " stone-throwing," ii.,
468.
WOODBURY, LEVI, iv., 300.
WOODFORD, GEN., iii., 544.
" WOODHOUSE," THE, ii., 185.
WOOD'S CREEK, skirmish at, iii., 574.
WOOL, JOHN E., at Queenstown, iv., 190; moves
against Chihuahua, 373.
WOOLMAN, early abolitionist, iii., 177.
WOOLMAN, JOHN, ii., 168, 181.
WOOSTER, GEN. DAVID, iii., 407, note; at Quebec,
449 ; at N. Y., 457 ; pursues Tryon, 547 ; mortally
u ounded, 548.
WORCESTER, battle of, ii., 377.
WORCESTER, Ma.-s.. how named, iii., 383.
WORCESTER, REV. MR., iv., 290.
WORDEN, JOHN L.. 'iis victory in the Monitor, iv.,
465.
WORLEY, pirate captain, iii., 98.
WORMINGHCRST, estate of Penn, ii., 489.
WORMLY, CAPTAIN, ii., 208.
WORTH, WILLIAM .1., commands in Florida, iv., 354;
in Mexican war, 371 et seq.
WOWASQUATUCKETT RlVER, ii., 39.
WREN, SIR CHRISTOPHER, iii.j 59.
WRIGHT, Gov., of Georgia, iii., 475.
WRIGHT, MAJOR, in Mexico, iv., 381.
WRIGHT, GEN. HORATIO G., at Petersburg, iv., 591.
WRIGHT, MARY, to Boston magistrates, ii., 191.
WHITS OF ASSISTANCE, iii., &32.
WROTH. ENSIGN, iii.. 274, note.
WUSSAUSMON, a Christian Indian, ii., 405.
WYANDOT INDIANS, represent the Hurons, ii., 499,
note; join Pontiac, iii., 317.
WVAT, SIR FR\NCIS. in Viiginia, i., 478, 484; re-ap
pointed Governor, ii., 201.
648
INDEX TO THE FOUR VOLUMES.
WYCKOFF'S HILL, Hi., 499.
WYLLY, COLONEL, iii., 501.
WYMAN, JEFFRIES, on shell-heaps, i., 14, note.
WYNNE, CAPTAIN, in Virginia Council, i., 290.
WYOMING, MASSACRE OF, iii., 608.
WYOMING COUNTRY, dispute over, iv., 97.
WYTHE, in Constitutional Convention, iv., 101.
"V Y. /. correspondence, iv., 133.
YAGERS, DONOP'S, Hessian sharpshooters, iii.,
49:;. f stq.
YALE STUDENTS, iii., 615.
YAMACRAW, Indian chief, iii., 145.
"YANKEE," THE, exploit of, iv., 206.
YAOCOMICO, village and Indian king in Maryland, i.,
495, 497.
YAQUI INDIANS, ii., 587, 596.
YAZOO RIVER, I>e Sotoon, i., 164.
YEAMANS, SIR JOHN, of S. C., ii., 275,282, 283.
YEARDLEY, SIR GEORGE, in Virginia, i., 305,478, 484.
YELL, ARCHIBALD, killed, iv., 375.
YELLOW FEVER in New York, iii., 38: on the At
lantic coast, iv., 135.
YEMASSEE INDIANS, ii., 560 ; iii., 94.
YEO, SIR JAMES, in command on the lakes, iv., 195.
YEOMEN, English, in the 17th ceiitury, i., 373.
YONGE, FRANCIS, iii., 100.
YORK, DUKE of, i.5., 35 ; iii., 17 el sri/. (See also
James II.)
YORK, MAIXK (AGAMENTKTS), i., 50, 420: "city of
Uorgeana," 4'iO : destroyed, 447.
YORK (now Toronto), destruction of, iv., 196.
YORKTOWN, Cormvallis fortifies, iv., 71 : besieged,
72: surrendered, 74 : McClellan's siege of, 468 ;
evacuated, 470,
YORKE, SIR JOSEPH, iii., 454.
YORKSHIRE, ii., 327. (See Long Island.)
YOUNG, URIGIIAM, iv., 427.
YOUNGS, JOHN, on Long Island, ii., 258
YOUNGSTOWN, destroyed, iv., 202.
YU.MA INDIANS, ii., 594.
/AGONY1, MAJOR, his charge ou the rebels at
'^ Springfield, Mo., iv., 458.
XAGUATO, city of, ii., 582, 583.
ZANESVILI.E, 0., school for colored children broken
up, iv.,334.
/ENGER, JOHN PETER, iii., 222 ft seq.
/EM BROTHERS, narrative of, i , 76.
/ENOBE, FATHER, with La Salic, ii., 512.
/ICHMNI, a Frisland prince, i., 78.
/OPUS, iii.. 26.
ZSCUOKKE, HEINRICH, ii., 169.
/UNI, a people of New Mexico, i., 75. note.
ZUNI (the Spanish Cibola), ii., 581 et xeq.
'' ZWOL," a Dutch vessel, ii., 125.
TUB END.
r
ERRATUM.
ao-e 315. sixth line from the bottom. Sidney should be 8. F. B.
HOME USE
CIRCULATION DEPARTMENT
MAIN LIBRARY
This book is due on the last date stamped below.
1 -month loans may be renewed by calling 642-3405.
6-month loans may be recharged by bringing books
to Circulation Desk.
Renewals and recharges may be made 4 days prior
to due date.
ALL BOOKS ARE SUBJECT TO RECALL 7 DAYS
AFTER DATE CHECKED OUT.
ft
*•*
Live Music Archive
Librivox Free Audio
Metropolitan Museum
Cleveland Museum of Art
Internet Arcade
Console Living Room
Books to Borrow
Open Library
TV News
Understanding 9/11